Prehistoric  America 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA 


MARQUIS    DE    NADAILLAC 


TRANSLATED     BY     N.  D'ANVERS 


EDITED     BY    W.  H.  DALL 


WITH    219    ILLUSTRATIONS 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW   YORK  LONDON 

27  WKST  TWBHTY-THIRD  ST.        77  KING  WILLIAM  ST..  STRAND 

€bt  Jinicktrborhrr  |)rtis 
1890 


COPYRIGHT  BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
1884 


t be  ftnicfcerbocfeer  press,  flew 

Klectrotypcd  and  Printed  by 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 


THt  GETTY  CENTER 
LIBRARY 


NOTE  BY  THE  AMERICAN  EDITOR. 


The  present  translation  of  the  Marquis  de  Nadaillac's 
I'Amerique  Prthistorique,  published  by  Masson  in  1882,  was 
made  with  the  author's  sanction.  By  his  permission  it  has 
been  modified  and  revised  to  bring  it  into  harmony  with  the 
results  of  recent  investigation  and  the  conclusions  of  the 
best  authorities  on  the  archaeology  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  proper  to  state  that  this  has  required  a  revision  of 
the  chapters  relating  to  the  archaeology  of  North  America 
and  the  addition  to  them  of  much  new  material.  For  such 
changes  and  additions  the  American  editor  is  to  be  held 
responsible. 

Many  quotations  have  been  verified  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Gibbs, 
and  the  acknowledgments  of  the  translator  are  also  due  for 
assistance  rendered  in  architectural  matters  by  Prof.  T. 
Roger  Smith  of  London  University,  and  in  other  details  by 
Dr.  Sainsbury  and  Miss  F.  E.  Judge. 

To  the  courtesy  of  the  Messrs.  Harper  &  Bros.,  the  pub- 
lishers are  indebted  for  the  opportunity  of  using  a  number 
of  illustrations  relating  to  the  archaeology  of  Peru.  These 
originally  appeared  in  Squier's  well-known  work  on  Peru, 
which  has  been  cited  as  an  authority  on  numerous  occasions 
by  the  author  of  the  present  work. 


PREFACE. 


Pre-historic  man  has  for  some  time  excited  a  justifiable 
interest  not  only  among  men  of  science  but  among  men  of 
intelligence  everywhere. 

The  first  revelations  in  regard  to  the  co-existence  of  man 
with  extinct  animals  were  received  not  only  with  surprise 
but  with  natural  incredulity.  Soon,  however,  proofs  of  such 
weight  multiplied,  that  doubt  became  no  longer  reasonable, 
and  we  are  now  able  to  assert  with  confidence  that,  at  a  period 
from  which  we  are  separated  by  many  centuries,  man  inhab- 
ited the  earth,  already  old  at  the  time  of  his  appearance. 
The  length  of  this  period  can  be  measured  by  no  chronology, 
no  calculation  can  compute  it,  history  and  tradition  are  si- 
lent with  regard  to  it ;  and  it  is  only  by  the  study  of  works 
which  may  be  almost  termed  stupendous,  and  by  the  most 
careful  reasoning  that  traces  of  pre-historic  man  have  been 
followed  up  through  an  almost  fabulous  past  and  some  idea 
has  been  gained  of  the  rude  pioneers  who  were  the  ances- 
tors of  the  human  race.  With  some  probability  Asia  has 
been  fixed  upon  as  the  primaeval  cradle  of  humanity,  from 
which  by  successive  migrations,  during  an  incalculable 
period,  man  spread  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  Old  World. 

At  an  epoch  not  far  distant,  men  probably  derived  from 
the  same  source,  made  their  appearance  in  the  New  World, 
wandering  on  the  shores  of  either  ocean.  Like  their  nomad 
contemporaries  of  the  other  hemisphere  they  knew  no  shelter 
save  that  afforded  by  nature  in  her  forests  and  rocks. 
Rudely  shaped  stones  served  them  alike  for  tools  and 
weapons  and  their  social  condition  was  paralleled  by  that 
known  for  their  European  contemporaries  under  the  name 
of  the  Stone  age.  In  accordance  with  a  universal  law  of 


VI  PREFACE. 

Nature  now  well  recognized,  men  alike  in  habits,  physique, 
and  mental  culture,  though  in  the  midst  of  most  diverse  con- 
ditions of  fauna,  flora,  and  climate,  were  traversing  the  forests 
of  India  and  the  frigid  regions  of  the  north,  chasing  the  rein- 
deer or  the  bear  on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  or  the  Miss- 
issippi as  well  as  along  the  Thames  or  the  Seine. 

Nor  is  this  all ;  the  inhabitants  of  distant  continents 
passed  through  strictly  analogous  phases  of  culture.  The 
nomads  were  succeeded  by  sedentary  tribes  who  settled  by 
the  banks  of  rivers  or  the  shores  of  ocean,  wherever  the 
bounty  of  the  waters  afforded  the  subsistence.  Shell-heaps 
and  kitchen  middens  bear  witness  to  the  long  duration  of 
their  sojourn.  Centuries  passed,  new  wants  were  felt, 
aesthetic  feeling  awoke,  and  here  and  there  the  stimulus  to 
progress  did  not  fail.  Social  life  had  taken  on  a  communal 
garb  and  the  common  needs  led  to  united  effort  for  their 
satisfaction.  Mounds,  tumuli,  pyramids,  arose,  and  earthen 
structures  in  whose  form  the  savage  often  embodied  the 
animal  outlines  associated  with  his  myths  or  ceremonials. 
In  other  regions,  probably  later,  another  form  was  taken  by 
the  outward  symbols  of  social  structure,  resulting  in  bee- 
hive-like pueblos.  Threatened  by  dangers  soon  to  be  ever 
present  they  sought  for  refuge  in  the  recesses  of  the  cliffs, 
conquering  difficulties  of  construction  which  appear  almost 
insurmountable  to  our  eyes.  Towns  and  monuments  arose 
of  which  the  imposing  ruins  still  bear  witness  to  the  skill  of 
those  whose  very  existence  has  been  but  recently  made 
known. 

Although  mounds  and  cliff-houses,  ruins  and  temples,  de- 
termine no  dates  of  erection  or  names  of  the  builders,  yet 
through  them  we -may  become  acquainted  with  the  essentials 
of  the  manners,  habits,  and  mental  culture,  of  the  ancient  in- 
habitants of  America.  We  are  able  to  conclude  that  at  the 
time  of  the  first  European  invasion  the  civilization  of  the 
Americans,  the  slow  growth  of  ages,  was  in  some  respects 
not  inferior  to  that  of  their  conquerors. 

In  "  Les  premiers  hommes  et  les  temps  prtthistoriques"  I  have 


PREFACE.  Vll 

described  the  Stone  Age  of  Europe  and  the  early  resting- 
places  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  Old  World.  The 
good- will  with  which  that  work  was  received  has  led  me  to 
supplement  it  by  tracing  the  analogous  period  in  America, 
seeking  the  first  evidences  of  a  culture  parallel  to  our  own 
and  bringing  the  recital  down  to  the  sixteenth  century  of  our 
era. 

My  task  has  been  facilitated  by  the  numerous  investiga- 
tions undertaken  in  the  United  States.  There,  many  so- 
cieties devote  themselves  to  the  study  of  aboriginal  antiqui- 
ties, museums  exist  already  containing  a  wealth  of  material ; 
excavations  are  carried  on  with  an  energy  and  perseverance 
Justly  commanding  admiration.  Success  has  crowned  these 
efforts,  every  day  bringing  to  light  the  most  remarkable  dis- 
coveries, the  most  unexpected  results. 

These  researches  and  discoveries  it  is  my  desire  to  make 
widely  known,  but,  as  I  have  said  elsewhere,  and  now  repeat, 
the  state  of  archaeology  is  such  that  however  great  the  im- 
portance of  the  facts  revealed  by  it,  we  cannot  regard  our 
present  conclusions  from  them  as  final.  Nothing  has  been 
more  injurious  to  science  that  the  ephemeral  popularity  of 
hypotheses  which  the  revelations  of  a  day  have  sometimes 
overturned.  As  was  lately  said  by  Virchow,  "  when  we 
know  as  little  as  we  do  yet,  it  behooves  us  to  be  modest  in 
our  theories." 

Our  present  lack  of  information,  however,  is  stimulating 
rather  than  prejudicial  to  archaeological  study.  For  my  part 
I  know  no  grander  spectacle  than  the  onward  march  of 
human  progress.  Every  fact  won,  every  stage  accomplished, 
becomes  the  starting  point  of  fresh  acquirement,  of  further 
progress  which  will  ever  be  the  glorious  heritage  of  future 
generations.  A  yet  more  elevating  sentiment  results  from 
these  studies  which  is  a  profound  gratitude  toward  Him  who 
created  man,  who  made  him  capable  of  such  progress  and 
granted  him  such  potentiality  of  mind.  Science  in  its  free- 
dom and  its  strength  cannot  disown  its  author. 

PARIS,  October  7,  1882. 


CONTENTS. 


I.    MAN  AND  THE  MASTODON  i 

II.      THE   KlTCHEN-MlDDENS   AND   THE   CAVES       .        46 

III.  THE  MOUND  BUILDERS 80 

IV.  POTTERY,  WEAPONS,  AND   ORNAMENTS    OF 

THE  MOUND  BUILDERS       .        .       .        .133 
V.    THE   CLIFF   DWELLERS  AND   THE   INHABI- 
TANTS OF  THE  PUEBLOS     .       .        .       .198 
VI.    THE  PEOPLE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA    .       .    260 
VII.    THE  RUINS  OE  CENTRAL  AMERICA      .       .317 

VIII.    PERU 387 

IX.    THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA  .        .      ;..        .        .    476 

X.    THE  ORIGIN  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA       .       .    518 

APPENDIX     ....  _^*==^*=      .        •        -533 

INDEX 539 


CHAPTER  I. 

MAN   AND   THE   MASTODON. 

THE  existence  of  the  American  continent  was  unknown  to 
the  Egyptians  and  the  Phoenicians,  as  well  as  to  the  Greeks 
and  Romans.  We  find  nothing  in  the  writings  either  of 
historians  or  of  geographers  to  justify  the  assertion  that  the 
ancients  even  suspected  the  existence  of  a  vast  continent 
beyond  the  Atlantic,  and  a  few  vague  statements,  a  few  bold 
guesses,  interpreted  later  with  the  help  of  accomplished 
facts,  cannot  be  accepted  as  evidence.  M.  De  Guignes  has 
endeavored  to  prove  that  intercourse  took  place  between 
China  and  America  as  early  as  the  fifth  century  of  our  era1 ; 
according  to  legends  in  which  a  little  truth  is  mingled  with 
much  fiction,  Northmen  landed  in  New  England  about  A.D. 
looo ;  and  in  maps  dating  from  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  continents  and  islands  of  uncertain  outline  are 
for  the  first  time  represented  beyond  the  ocean.  The 
Eskimo  passed  freely  from  one  continent  to  another  in  the 
circumpolar  regions,  but  they  were  themselves  as  entirely 
unknown  as  the  other  inhabitants  of  America.  In  the  course 
of  the  present  work  we  shall  examine  into  the  question  of 
the  relations  which  may  have  existed  between  the  Old  World 
and  the  New,  but  shall  content  ourselves  at  present  with 
saying  that  the  first  positive  information  about  the  new 
countries  and  their  mysterious  people  dates  only  from  the 
fifteenth  century.  Side  by  side  with  the  glorious  name  of 
Christopher  Columbus,3  we  must  place  those  of  Jacques  Car- 

1  These  fables  arose  from  early  voyages  of  the  Chinese  to  Korea  and  Japan, 
exaggerated  accounts  of  which  were  misunderstood  by  students  of  ancient 
Chinese  literature. 

1  Christopher  Columbus  left  Palos,  near  Seville,  on  the  3d  of  August,  1498, 
and  on  the  I4th  of  the  following  October  landed  on  the  island  of  Samana, 

I 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

tier,  John  and  Sebastian  Cabot,  Amerigo  Vespucci,  Magellan, 
Pizarro,  and  especially  Fernando  Cortes,  as  the  first  to 
establish  the  supremacy  of  European  civilization  in  the  New 
World. 

Cortes  disembarked  at  the  mouth  of  the  little  river  Tabas- 
co, on  the  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  fought  two 
successive  battles  with  the  Indians,1  who  ventured  to  oppose 
his  passage.  The  second  battle,  which  was  bloody  and  long 
contested,  took  place  on  the  i8th  of  March,  1519.  Victory 
remained  with  the  Spaniards,  and  Cortes  erected  upon  the 
soil  of  America  his  great  standard  of  black  velvet  embroid- 
ered with  gold,  having  in  the  centre  a  red  cross  surrounded 
by  blue  and  white  flames,  bearing  the  following  inscription 
in  Latin  :  "  Friends,  let  us  follow  the  Cross,  and  if  we  have 
faith  in  that  sign  we  shall  conquer."  This  was  Europe's 
Act  of  Appropriation ;  from  that  moment  her  fortunes  and 
those  of  the  New  World  have  been  indissolubly  united.* 

1  Columbus,  imbued  with  the  ideas  of  his  time,  supposed  the  land  he  saw 
stretching  before  him  to  be  the  coast  of  India,  hence  the  name  of  the  West 
Indies,  and  that  of  Indians  still  given  to  the  natives  of  America,  as  if  posterity 
had  felt  it  a  point  of  honor  to  perpetuate  the  illusion  of  the  great  navigator. 

3  Pre-historic  America  has  been  discussed  by  numerous  writers.  A  mere 
list  of  them  would  fill  a  long  bibliography  :  we  will  only  name  :  Atwater's 
"  Description  of  the  Antiquities  of  Ohio  "  ;  the  publications  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  including  the  work  of  Squier  and  Davis  on  "Ancient  Monuments 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley  "  ;  the  researches  of  Dr.  Chas.  Rau,  and  those  of  Dall, 
on  pre-historic  remains  in  the  Aleutian  islands  ;  Squier's  "  Antiquities  of  the 
State  of  New  York,"  and  Lapham's  "  Antiquities  of  Wisconsin  "  ;  Schoolcraft's 
"Historical  and  Statistical  Information  Respecting  the  Indian  Tribes  of  the 
United  States,  "in  six  volumes  ;  Baldwin's  "  Ancient  America  "  ;  Wilson's"  Pre- 
historic Man  "  ;  Waldeck's  "  Voyage  au  Yucatan  "  ;  Charnay's  "  Cites  et  Ruines 
Americaines,"  with  a  preface  by  Violletle  Due  ;  Stephens'  "  Incidents  of  Travels 
in  Central  America,"  in  two  volumes  ;  Prescott's  "  Conquest  of  Mexico"  and 
"  Conquest  of  Peru  "  ;  Jones'  "  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians  "  ;  Morton's 
"Crania  Americana"  ;  Nott  and  Gliddon's  "Types  of  Mankind  ";  Foster's 
"Pre-historic  Races  of  the  United  States  ";  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg's  "  His- 
toire  des  Nations  Civilisees  du  Mexique  et  de  1'  Amerique  Centrale,"  in  four 
volumes  ;  Southall's  "  Recent  Origin  of  Man  "  ;  Short's  "  North  Americans  of 
Antiquity";  Tylor's  "Researches  into  the  Early  History  of  Mankind"; 
Squier's  "  Peru  "  ;  his  "  Incidents  of  Travel  and  Exploration  in  the  Land  of  the 
Incas  "  ;  and  the  important  work  of  H.  H.  Bancroft,  on  "The  Native  Races 
of  the  Pacific  States  of  North  America,"  in  five  volumes. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  3 

In  the  sixteenth  century  America  was  inhabited  from  the 
Arctic  Ocean  to  Cape  Horn,  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic 
to  those  of  the  Pacific,  by  millions  of  men  of  types  analogous 
to  and  with  characteristics  as  varied  as  many  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  Old  World.  Amongst  them  were  to  be  found 
numerous  shades  of  complexion,  from  the  ruddy  white  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Cordillera  of  the  Andes,  of  the  Amazon 
valley,  or  of  the  island  of  Santa  Catherina,  to  the  much 
darker  tint  of  some  of  the  tribes  of  California  and  Florida, 
of  the  natives  of  the  island  of  St.  Vincent,  or  of  the  Charruas 
dwelling  on  the  southern  banks  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata.1  The 
Eskimo  of  the  north  were  short ;  the  Patagonians  of  the 
south  were  remarkable  for  their  lofty  stature."  Some  Indian 
tribes  had  slender  limbs  with  small  hands  and  feet ;  others 
were  robust  and  stoutly  built.  Some  had  round  heads, 
whilst  in  others  the  dolicho-cephalous  3  form  was  pronounced. 
Some  had  an  abundant  crop  of  hair,  others  scarcely  any ; 
some  shaved  their  heads,  others  let  their  hair  grow  long.  It 
would  take  a  long  time  to  enumerate  all  the  differences  of 
type  and  race  met  with  by  Europeans  when  they  first  arrived 
on  the  American  continent.  The  native  Americans  lived 
among  mammalia,  birds,  fish,  and  reptiles  mostly  unknown 
in  Europe.  In  the  south  the  Llama 4  was  their  chief  do- 
mestic animal ;  they  used  it  as  a  beast  of  burden,  ate  its 
flesh,  clothed  themselves  with  its  wool.  Oxen,  camels,  goats, 
horses,  and  asses  were  unknown  to  them.  The  European 
dog,  our  faithful  companion,  also  appears  to  have  been  a 
stranger  to  them."  His  place  was  very  inadequately  filled 

1  Nott  and  Gliddon's  "  Types  of  Mankind  "  ;  Broca,  Primer  Bey,  Bull.  Soc. 
Anth.,  1862  ;  Ameghino,  "  La  Antiguedad  del  Hombre  en  el  Plata,"  vol.  i., 

p.  71. 

1  Topinard,  Rev.  if  Anth.,   1878,  p.  511. 
»  From  doAz^O?  long,  and  H£<pakrf  head. 

4  The  Llama  (Auchenia)  is  a  ruminant  of  the  family  of  the  Camelida.     It  re- 
sembles the  camel  in  the  peculiar  structure  of  its  stomach,  and  is  a  native  of  the 
regions  on  the  slopes  of  the  Cordillera  of  the  Andes.      The  Guanaco  and  the 
Vicuna  are  species  of  the  same  group. 

5  Certain  kinds  of   dogs  were,  however,  domesticated   in  America.      They 
v.\-:c  called  Xulos  in  Nicaragua,   Tsomes  in  Yucatan,  and  Techichis  in  Mexico. 


4  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

by  the  coyote,1  or  prairie  wolf,  which  they  kept  in  captivity 
and  had  succeeded  in  taming  to  a  certain  extent.  The  large 
feline  animals  were  represented  by  the'  jaguar,*  the  lynx,3 
the  puma,4  the  habitat  of  which  extended  from  Canada  to 
Patagonia  ;  and  the  ocelot,5  frequenting  Mexico  and  part  of 
South  America.  The  bears  were  represented  by  the  little 
black  bear  *  and  by  the  grizzly  bear/  both  of  which  differ  in 
many  important  characters  from  any  which  could  have  been 
previously  known  to  the  Spaniards.  Even  the  monkeys,  so 
numerous  in  South  America,  were  quite  unlike  those  of  the 
Old  World.  All  had  long  prehensile  tails,  such  as  are  not 
possessed  by  European  or  African  monkeys. 

The  differences  in  the  flora  were  not  less  marked.  The 
trees  were  generally  of  species  foreign  to  Europe  and  Asia. 
Maize  was  the  only  cereal  cultivated  in  the  New  World, 
though  the  so-called  "  wild  rice  "  was  harvested  in  North 
America.  Wheat,  rye,  barley,  oats,  millet,  and  rice  were 
unknown  to  the  Indians.  On  the  other  hand,  they  had 
a  leguminous  plant,  the  manioc,  different  from  any  European 
vegetable,6  tobacco,9  tomatoes,  and  peppers — all  valuable 
acquisitions  to  civilization. 

These  were  considered  to  afford  very  delicate  food  after  having  been  castrated 
and  fattened. 

1  Cants  latrans,  Baird.  In  a  description  of  Virginia  published  in  1649,  we 
read  :  "  The  wolf  of  Carolina  is  the  dog  of  the  woods.  The  Indians  had  no 
other  curs  before  the  Christians  came  amongst  them.  They  are  made  domestic. 
They  go  in  great  droves  in  the  night  to  hunt  deer,  which  they  do  as  well  as  the 
best  pack  of  hounds." 

1  Felis  onca,  Linnaeus,  a  native  of  South  America. 

*  Lynx  canadetisis,  Raf. ,  known  also  under  the  name  of  loup-cervier  or  wild- 
cat ;  its  skin  formed  one  of  the  objects  of  trade  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Company. 
The  natives  are  said  to  eat  its  flesh,  which  is  white  and  insipid. 

4  Felis  concolor,  Illiger, 
6  Felis pardalis,  Linnaeus. 

*  Ursus  Americanus,  native  to  North  America. 

T  Ursus  ferox.  It  could  easily  drag  off  a  buffalo  weighing  more  than  a  thou- 
sand pounds.  Some  twenty  years  ago  this  bear  was  still  pretty  common  in  Cal- 
ifornia. The  Indians  hunted  and  overcame  it  with  the  help  of  their  lassos. 

8  The  roots  of  the  manioc  yield  a  starch  known  under  the  name  of  tapioca. 

*  It  is  said  that  tobacco  was  first  imported  into  Europe  in  1588  by  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  5 

The  Indians,  who  were  successively  conquered  by  foreign 
invaders,  spoke  hundreds  of  different  dialects.  Bancroft 
estimates  that  there  were  six  hundred  between  Alaska  and 
Panama  ; '  Ameghino "  speaks  of  eight  hundred  in  South 
America.  Most  of  these,  however,  are  mere  derivatives  from 
a  single  mother  tongue  like  the  Aymara  and  the  Guarani. 
We  quote  these  figures  for  what  they  are  worth.  Philology 
has  no  precise  definition  of  what  constitutes  a  language,  and 
any  one  can  add  to  or  deduct  from  the  numbers  given 
according  to  the  point  of  view  from  which  he  considers  the 
matter.  As  an  illustration  of  this,  it  may  be  mentioned  that 
some  philologists  estimate  the  languages  of  North  America 
at  no  less  than  thirteen  hundred,  whilst  Squier"  would 
reduce  those  of  both  continents  to  four  hundred, 

These  dialects  present  a  complete  disparity  in  their  vocab- 
ulary side  by  side  with  great  similarity  of  structure.4  "  In 

'"Native  Races,"  vol.  III.,  p.  557.  These  dialects  maybe  divided  into 
numerous  distinct  groups,  of  which  four  particularly  characteristic  families  may 
be  mentioned,  i.  The  Innuit  or  Eskimo,  which  differs  strongly  from  the 
other  American  languages  ;  2.  The  Tinneh,  spoken  in  the  Rocky  Mountain 
region,  and  extending  into  Alaska,  the  British  possessions,  Oregon,  California, 
New  Mexico,  and  Texas  ;  3.  The  Aztec  or  Nahua,  which  is  widely  spread 
throughout  Central  America.  The  remarkable  poems  of  Nezahualcoyotl,  king 
of  Tezcuco,  are  written  in  this  language.  Lastly  the  Maya-Quiche,  probably 
the  most  ancient  language  of  Central  America,  which  predominated  in  Yucatan, 
Chiapas  and  Guatemala.  The  Indians  of  Yucatan  are  said  to  speak  it  to  this 
day,  and  Sefior  Orozco  y  Berra  tells  us  that  all  the  geographical  names  of  the 
peninsula  are  of  Maya  origin  ("  Geog.  de  las  Lenguas  de  Mex.,"  p.  129). 

*"La  Antiguedad  del  Hombre,"  vol  I.,  p.  77.  Sefior  Ameghino  notes  the 
curious  fact  that  amongst  certain  tribes  the  women  speak  a  dialect  distinct  from 
that  of  the  men.  It  is  more  likely  that  the  sexes  merely  express  themselves  in 
a  different  manner. 

'Nott  and  Gliddon,  "  Types  of  Mankind."  Squier  asserts  that  one  hundred 
and  eighty-seven  words  of  these  four  hundred  dialects  are  common  to  foreign 
languages  ;  one  hundred  and  four  occur  in  Asiatic  or  Australian,  forty-three  in 
European,  and  forty  in  African  languages.  This,  however,  requires  further 
confirmation. 

4  Bancroft,  vol.  III.,  p.  556.  "  Other  peculiarities  common  to  all  American 
languages  might  be  mentioned,  such  as  reduplications,  or  a  repetition  of  the 
same  syllable  to  express  plurals ;  the  use  of  frequentatives  and  duals  ;  the 
application  of  gender  to  the  third  person  of  the  verb  ;  the  direct  conversion  of 
nouns,  substantive  and  adjective,  into  verbs,  and  their  conjugation  as  such  ; 


6  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

America,"  says  Humboldt,'  "  from  the  country  of  the  Esqui- 
maux to  the  banks  of  the  Orinoco,  and  thence  to  the  frozen 
shores  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  languages  differing  entirely 
in  their  derivation  have,  if  we  may  use  the  expression,  the 
same  physiognomy.  Striking  analogies  in  grammatical  con, 
struction  have  been  recognized,  not  only  in  the  more  perfect 
languages,  such  as  those  of  the  Incas,  the  Aymara,  the  Guarani, 
and  the  Mexicans,  but  also  in  languages  which  are  extremely 
rude.  Dialects,  the  roots  of  which  do  not  resemble  each 
other  more  than  the  roots  of  the  Sclavonian  and  Biscayan, 
show  resemblances  in  -structure  similar  to  those  which  are 
found  between  the  Sanscrit,  the  Persian,  the  Greek,  and  the 
Germanic  languages."  These  languages  are  polysynthetic  * 
and  agglutinative,3  which  generally  indicates  a  rudimentary 
state  of  culture.  They  were,  however,  rich  enough  to  indi- 
cate that  there  was  not  a  total  absence  of  intellectual  devel- 
opment.4 Their  diversity  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  con- 
stant crossing  of  races,  migrations,  and  by  the  new  customs 

peculiar  generic  distinctions  arising  from  a  separation  of  animate  from  inani- 
mate beings." 

'Quoted  by  Pritchard,  "Natural  History  of  Man,"  4th  edition,  vol.  II., 
p.  496. 

'Gallatin  ("Trans.  Am.  Ethn.  Soc. ,"vol.  I.) defines  a  polysynthetic  language 
as  one  in  which  all  that  modifies  the  subject  or  the  action,  or  still  more  several 
complex  ideas  having  a  natural  connection  with  each  other,  is  expressed  by  a 
single  word.  The  Aztec  language  is  one  of  the  most  curious  of  this  kind. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  word  Amatlacuilolitquitcatlaxlahuilli,  which  means, 
"  Payment  received  for  having  been  bearer  of  a  paper  with  writing  on  it."  On 
p.  34  Gallatin  gives  the  longest  word  in  the  Cherokee  language — Winitawtgegi- 
naliskawlungtanawnelitisesti,  which  translated  into  English  means  :  "  They  will 
by  that  time  have  nearly  done  granting  (favors)  from  a  distance  to  thee  and  to 
me." 

8  An  agglutinative  language  is  one  in  which  new  words  are  formed  by  joining 
roots  together  without  changing  their  construction.  Ameghino  in  his  "  An- 
tiguedad  del  Hombre,"  vol.  I.,  p.  76,  says:  "  casi  todas  las  lenguas  Ameri- 
canas  son  polisilabicas  o  aglutinativas,  es  decir  que  difieren  esencialmente  del 
grupo  de  lenguas  monosilabicas  del  Asia  oriental  y  de  las  lenguas  a  flexion  que 
hablan  los  pueblos  arianos." 

4  We  cannot  agree  with  Canon  Farrar's  opinion,  that  the  richness  which  has 
been  admired  in  the  aboriginal  American  languages  is  only  a  means  of  hiding 
their  real  poverty  ("  Families  of  Speech,"  London,  1873,  pp.  124  et  seq.). 


MAN-  AND    THE  Af AS  TO  DON.  J 

and  ideas  which  gradually  become  introduced  even  amongst 
the  most  degraded  peoples  ;  still  more  by  the  well-recognized 
instability  and  mobility  of  many  aboriginal  languages.  Some 
missionaries  say  they  have  found  the  language  of  tribes, 
revisited  after  an  absence  of  ten  years,  completely  changed 
in  the  interim.1 

The  differences  in  culture  of  the  American  aborigines 
were  hardly  less  remarkable.  These  need  not,  however,  sur- 
prise us,  for  at  the  same  period  equally  radical  differences 
existed  among  European  races, — differences,  indeed,  which 
are  still  maintained  in  spite  of  constant  intercommunication. 
Some  of  the  American  races  were  rich,  industrious,  and 
agricultural ;  they  had  an  organized  government,  towns,  laws, 
a  religious  system,  and  a  powerful  priesthood.  In  reporting 
to  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  on  a  reconnoissance  made  in  the 
province  of  Quacalco,  Cortes  stated  that  the  river*  was 
dotted  on  either  side  with  numerous  large  towns.  "The 
whole  province  is  level  and  well  fortified,  rich  in  all  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  earth."  '  His  verdict  was  equally  favorable 
in  many  other  particulars. 

Side  by  side  with  these  people,  who  may  best  be  compared 
with  the  ancient  nations  of  Asia,  dwelt  other  aborigines,  pre- 
senting a  complete  contrast  to  their  neighbors  ;  sedentary 
tillers  of  the  soil,  living  in  communities,  in  pueblos  resem- 
bling bee-hives  in  their  arrangement ;  the  Algonquins  and 
the  Apaches,  nomad  savages  living  on  grasses  and  roots 
when  the  chase  and  fishing  failed  them  ;  the  Aleutians,  dis- 
figured by  hideous  tatooing,  chasing  the  sea  otter  in  ingen- 
ious canoes  of  seal-skin,  fabricating  delicate  tissues  out  of 
such  materials  as  grass-fibres  and  feathers,  and  deriving  their 
entire  subsistence  from  the  products  of  the  sea. 

Some  of  these  people  venerated  animals,  such  as  the  ser- 
pent and  the  owl ;  in  Honduras  it  was  the  tiger,  in  Vancouver 

1  Dr.  Carl  Gtittler,  "  Naturforschung  und  Bibel,"  Freiburg im  Breisgau,  1877. 

*  The  Coatzacoalcos,  a  river  of  the  isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  at  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  province  of  Vera  Cruz. 

*Carta  Segunda  de  relacion  ap.  Lorenzana,  Folios  91,  92,  Published  at 
Mexico,  1700, 


8  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Island  the  squirrel,  which  was  connected  with  religious 
myths.  Nor  was  this  the  extreme  limit  of  human  degradation; 
among  certain  Californian  tribes  men  and  women  wandered 
about  stark  naked,  recognizing  neither  laws,  Gods,  nor 
chiefs,  and  owning  no  shelter  but  that  of  some  lofty  tree,  or 
the  cave  for  which  they  competed  with  the  wild  beasts. 

No  less  striking  were  the  contrasts  in  South  America  ; 
side  by  side  with  the  Peruvians,  the  richest  and  most  cul- 
tured people  of  the  two  Americas,  the  barbarous  Queran- 
dis  occupied  the  territory  now  forming  the  Argentine  Repub- 
lic. On  the  2d  of  February,  1535,  Don  Pedro  de  Mendoza 
landed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Riachuelo,  where  he  founded  the 
city  of  Santissima  Trinidad  de  Buenos  Ayres.  One  of  his 
companions  has  written  an  account  of  his  expedition,1  and  of 
his  long  struggle  with  the  savages  who  had  nothing  but  stone 
weapons,  slings  with  which  they  flung  their  bolas,  and  the 
lassos  so  formidable  in  their  hands.  Even  less  civilized  were 
the  vast  deserts  of  the  extreme  South,  overrun  as  they  were 
by  savage  nomad  tribes,  disputing  with  each  other  and 
with  wild  beasts  for  subsistence  and  shelter. 

Such  were  the  people  upon  whom  the  Europeans  swept 
down  as  upon  a  prey  given  over  to  their  desires.  While 
Cortes  was  subjugating  Central  America,  and  Pizarro  was 
overturning  the  throne  of  the  Incas,  parties  led  by  Mendoza, 
Solis,  Gaboto,  and  Cabe£a  de  Vaca  ascended  the  Rio  de  la 
Plata,  the  Paraguay,  and  the  Parana,  their  courage  and 
energy  winning  for  Spain  the  magnificent  colonial  empire 
which  she  retained  until  the  nineteenth  century.  Why  was  it 
necessary  that  their  glory  should  have  been  stained  by  foul 
cruelty  and  gloomy  fanaticism  ? 

The  Portuguese a  were  no  less  active,  and  the  two  nations 

1  A  German  soldier,  Ulrich  Schmidt,  who  took  part  in  the  expedition,  has 
given  a  very  interesting  account  of  it,  which  was  printed  at  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main  in  1567,  under  the  title  of  "  Warhafftige  und  liebliche  Beschreibunge  et- 
licher  furnemen  Indianischen  Landtschafften  und  Indsulen,"  etc.  See  also 
Ruy  Diaz  de  Guzman's  "  Historia  del  descubrimiento,  conquistas  y  poblacion 
del  Rio  de  la  Plata." 

*  For  an  account  of  the  part  taken  by  the  Portuguese  in  the  discovery  of  the 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  9 

disputed  for  the  possession  of  the  New  World  with  ferocious 
zeal. 

On  the  Qth  of  March  1 500,  Alvarez  de  Cabral  left  Portu- 
gal with  a  fleet  of  thirteen  vessels,  to  go  to  the  Indies  by 
way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  After  passing  the  Cape  de 
Verde  islands  he  steered  westward  to  avoid  the  calms  which 
prevail  off  the  coast  of  Guinea.  Chance  favored  him  be- 
yond his  hopes,  and  six  weeks  after  he  sailed  he  landed  at 
Porto  Seguro.  Brazil  was  thus  discovered, '  and  Cabral  had 
the  glory  of  giving  to  his  country  a  land  sixteen  times  as 
large a  as  France.  The  country  was  inhabited  by  the  Tupis, 
of  the  Guarani  race.3  These  people  lived  in  villages  con- 
sisting generally  of  four  spacious  green  arbors  enclosing  a 
square.  They  were  skilful  in  the  use  of  the  bow,  and  sub- 
sisted upon  the  products  of  the  chase.  They  were  entirely 
naked.  A  strange  ornament  disfigured  the  men,  who  wore 
in  the  lower  lip  a  plug  of  wood  or  jade,4  the  weight  of  which 
dragged  down  the  lip  in  a  hideous  fashion. 

Some  years  later,  Magellan  *  discovered  the  strait  bearing 
his  name.  An  Italian  named  Antonio  Pigafetta,  who  went 
with  him,  relates*  that  the  great  navigator  was  obliged 

New  World,  see  a  capital  essay  by  L.  Cordeiro  in  the  first  volume  of  the 
Compte  rendu  du  Congrls  des  Amdricanistes,  held  at  Nancy  in  1875. 

1  It  is  possible  that  the  French  had  previously  touched  at  several  points  of 
Brazil.  On  this  point  see  Bergeron,  "  Hist,  de  la  Navigation,"  Paris,  1630,  p.  107. 
"  Normans  and  Bretons,  however,  maintain  that  they  were  the  first  to  discover 
these  countries,  and  that  they  traded  from  time  immemorial  with  the  natives  of 
that  part  of  Brazil  now  known  as  Porto  Real.  But  there  having  been  no  writ- 
ten record  of  this  intercourse  it  has  fallen  into  complete  oblivion.  The  Portu- 
guese called  the  country  Santa  Cruz,  after  the  cross  solemnly  erected  by  Cabral ; 
but  our  French  called  it  Brazil,  because  that  wood  grows  very  plentifully  in 
certain  parts."  See  also  an  essay  by  M.  Gafferel,  Congrh  des  Amtricanistes , 
Luxembourg,  volume  I.,  1877. 

"Brazil  has  an  area  of  3.288,000  English  square  miles. 

3  Dr.  Couto  de  Magalhaes,  "O  Selvagem,"  Riode  Janeiro,  1876.  The  Guaranis 
also  peopled  the  Argentine  Republic,  Uruguay,  and  Paraguay. 

4  This  custom  lingers  lo  the  present  day  among  the  Botocudos,  a  savage  tribe 
of  cannibals  in  Brazil,  and  the  western  Eskimo. 

•  From  1519  to  1522. 

•  "  Magellan's  First  Voyage  Round  the  World,"  Hakluyt  Society's  publica- 
tions, p.  50, 


10  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

to  winter  in  the  Bay  of  San  Juliano,  where  an  Indian  was 
brought  to  him  who  had  been  surprised  by  his  sailors.  This 
man,  says  our  historian,  "was  so  tall  that  the  tallest  of  us 
only  came  up  to  his  waist ;  however,  he  was  well  built ;  he 
had  a  large  face,  painted  red  '  all  round,  and  his  eyes  also 
were  painted  yellow  around  them ;  *  *  *  he  was 
clothed  with  the  skin  of  a  certain  beast ;  *  *  *  this 
beast  has  its  head  and  ears  of  the  size  of  a  mule,  and  the 
neck  and  body  of  the  fashion  of  a  camel,  the  legs  of  a  deer, 
and  the  tail  like  that  of  the  horse.  *  *  *  This  giant 
had  his  feet  covered  with  the  skin  of  this  animal  in  the  form 
of  shoes,  and  he  carried  in  his  hand  a  short  and  thick  bow, 
*  *  with  a  bundle  of  cane  arrows,  which  were  not 
very  long,  and  were  feathered  like  ours,  but  they  had  no  iron 
at  the  end,  though  they  had  at  the  end  some  small  white 
and  black  cut  stones."  It  was  a  Tehuelche,  to  whom  Ma- 
gellan gave  the  name  of  Patagon,  because  of  the  size  of  his 
foot,  which  was  aggravated  by  the  shape  of  the  shoe  he  wore. 

Before  the  arrival  of  the  Europeans,  Guiana  was  inhabited 
by  a  number  of  petty  native  tribes,  many  of  them  consisting 
of  a  few  families.  The  more  advanced  cultivated  fields  of 
manioc,  the  roots  of  which  supplied  all  their  needs.  Their 
bows  and  cotton  hammocks  were  their  only  wealth.  Their 
chiefs  had  little  authority,  and  they  were  so  totally  ignorant 
of  religion  that  they  could  not  even  be  called  idolaters.  They 
had  vague  ideas  of  the  existence  of  a  good  and  an  evil 
spirit,  and  their  only  dissipation  was  to  intoxicate  themselves 
with  a  drink  made  from  manioc  root,  which  was  chewed  by 
the  old  women  and  then  fermented.1 

But  we  need  not  give  any  further  account  of  these  great 
discoveries.  We  must  return  to  the  companions  of  Cortes 
to  tell  of  the  new  wonders  which  awaited  them.  Even  in 
the  most  remote  districts  in  the  primeval  forests  covering 
Chiapas,  Guatemala,  Honduras,  and  Yucatan  ;  where  through 

1  The  women  also  painted  their  breasts  red.  Pigafetta's  relation  is  an  obvi- 
ously gross  exaggeration  so  far  as  relates  to  the  stature  of  the  natives. 

a  Ternaux  Compans,  "  Notice  Hist,  sur  la  Guyane  Fran9aise,"  Paris,  1843, 
P-35- 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  II 

the  dense  undergrowth  a  passage  had  often  to  be  forced, 
axe  in  hand ;  statues,  columns,  hieroglyphics,  unoccupied 
villages,  abandoned  palaces,  and  stately  ruins  rose  on  every 
side,  mute  witnesses  of  past  ages  and  of  vanished  races. 
Everywhere  the  conquerors  were  met  by  tokens,  not  only  of 
a  civilization  even  more  ancient  and  probably  more  advanced 
than  that  of  the  races  they  subjugated,  but  also  of  struggles 
and  wars,  those  scourges  of  humanity  in  every  race  and  every 
clime. 

About  three  centuries  before  the  arrival  of  Cortes,  the 
Aztecs,  who  were  to  be  conquered  by  him,  established  them- 
selves in  Anahuac,1  where,  after  terrible  struggles  and  de- 
feats which,  for  a  time,  arrested  their  progress,  they  founded 
Tenochtitlan,"  which  became  their  capital.  It  is  almost  im- 
possible to  fix  the  exact  limits s  of  their  empire,  which 
stretched  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  in  the  countries 
now  forming  Mexico  and  part  of  the  United  States.  These 
limits  were  constantly  varied  by  the  submission  of  one 
tribe  or  the  revolt  of  some  other  which  achieved  an  ephem- 
eral independence.  It  is  even  doubtful  whether  this  em- 
pire was  not,  like  the  Aztec,  little  more  than  a  federation 
of  tribes  of  the  Nahuatl  race,  like  the  Aztecs  themselves, 
among  whom  the  Acolhuas  and  Tepanecs  were  the  most 
important. 

One  thing  is  certain :  the  government,  though  oppressive 
to  the  governed,  was  by  no  means  firm.  Cortes  found  some 
faithful  friends  among  discontented  tribes  and  chiefs  smart- 
ing under  injuries  received,  and  it  was  due  to  their  help  that 
he  was  able  to  break  the  power  of  Montezuma.4  These 

1  The  name  of  Anahuac,  very  incorrectly  given  to  the  Mexican  empire,  was 
a  general  term  used  in  speaking  of  any  country  situated  about  a  lake  or  a  large 
sheet  of  water.  See  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg's  "  Ruines  de  Palenque,"  Chap. 
II.,  p.  32. 

*  Indian  name  of  the  city  of  Mexico. 

'Bancroft  (vol.  II.,  p.  94),  following  Clavigero,  places  their  boundaries  be- 
tween N.  Lat.  18°  and  21°  on  the  Atlantic  side,  and  14°  and  19°  on  the 
Pacific. 

*  We  follow  the  spelling  generally  adopted.     The  real  name  of  the  chief  con- 
quered by  Cortes  was  Moctheuzema,  or  Moktezema. 


12  PRR-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

tribes  were  probably  descended  from  the  Toltecs,1  who,  as 
we  shall  see,  invaded  Mexico  before  the  Aztecs.  We  are 
completely  in  the  dark  as  to  this  invasion,  which  modern 
historians  place  at  about  the  sixth  century  of  our  era.  We 
only  know  that  the  Toltecs  formed  a  confederacy,  and  that 
each  tribe  yielded  allegiance  to  an  independent  chief." 
Were  these  Pelasgians  of  the  New  World,  as  Humboldt 
calls  them,  the  sole  builders  of  the  monuments  we  are  about 
to  describe, — the  first  inhabitants  of  the  ruined  towns  for 
which  their  descendants  have  no  names  ?  It  is  very  doubt- 
ful, although  we  know  that  this  race  has  influenced  more 
than  any  other  the  history  of  Central  America,  and  that  the 
language,  the  religious  rites,  and  the  customs  of  the  Tol- 
tecs were  met  with  from  the  Gila  river  to  the  isthmus  of 
Panama.  But,  torn  by  internecine  struggles,  decimated 
by  pestilence,  they  could  not  successfully  resist  the  Chichi- 
mecs.  Some  withdrew  southward  and'  became  merged 
with  the  Mayas,  already  settled  in  Yucatan,  and  of  whose 
importance  we  shall  also  have  to  speak  presently.  The 
Chichimecs  are  even  less  known  than  their  rivals,3  and  to 
add  to  our  difficulties  their  name  has  now  become  a  gen- 
eral term  to  designate  the  unconquered  tribes  of  New  Spain. 
Hence,  doubtless,  the  universal  idea  that  they  were  wild 
and  barbarous.  Bancroft  thinks  they  were  of  the  Nahuatl 

1  Sahagun  is  the  first  historian  who  mentions  the  Toltecs.  Their  true  name 
is  still  uncertain.  That  given  to  them  by  us  is  derived  from  their  capital  Tol- 
lan  or  Tula.  According  to  Humboldt,  they  were  the  builders  of  the  mysterious 
towns  scattered  throughout  Central  America,  where  their  supremacy  lasted  sev- 
eral centuries.  A  very  old  tradition  says  that  they  are  descended  from  seven 
chiefs,  who  came  out  of  the  seven  caves  to  which  we  shall  have  occasion  .to  re- 
fer again. 

1  Ixtlilxochitl,  "  Hist.  Chichimeca  ;  "  Kingsborough,  "  Mex.  Ant.,"  vol.  IX. 
This  historian  was  descended  through  the  female  line  from  the  ancient  kings  of 
the  country.  He  was  brought  up  by  theSpaniards,  and  converted  to  the  Catholic 
faith.  He  was  still  living  in  1608. 

'"I  will  only  mention  the  people  denominated  Chichimecs,  under  which 
general  name  were  designated  a  multitude  of  tribes  inhabiting  the  mountains 
north  of  the  valley  of  Mexico,  all  of  which  were  chiefly  dependent  on  the  re- 
sult of  the  chase  for  their  subsistence." — Bancroft,  vol.  I.,  p.  617.  Becker, 
"  Migrations  des  Nahuas,"  Congres  des  Amdricanistes,  Luxembourg,  1877. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  1 3 

race  ;  others,  and  amongst  them  the  earliest  historians  of 
the  country,  hold  a  different  opinion,  maintaining  that 
their  language  was  wholly  different  from  that  of  the 
Nahuas.1 

All  these  men,  whether  Toltecs,  Chichimecs,  or  Aztecs, 
believed  that  their  people  came  from  the  North,*  and  mi- 
grated southward,  seeking  more  fertile  lands,  more  genial 
climates,  or  perhaps  driven  before  a  more  warlike  race  ;  one 
wave  of  emigration  succeeding  another.  We  must,  accord- 
ing to  this  tradition,  seek  in  more  northern  regions  the  cradle 
of  the  Nahuatl  race. 

In  the  Mississippi  valley  are  found  mounds  occasionally 
of  imposing  grandeur,  huge  earth-works,  fortifications,  vil- 
lage-sites, altars,  or  tombs,  from  which  are  derived  the  name 
of  Mound-Builders,  given  to  those  who  constructed  them  ; 
a  title  very  widely  adopted  in  ignorance  of  facts  which  the 
most  recent  investigations  are  only  now  beginning  to  place 
on  a  sound  foundation. 

There  is,  it  is  now  reasonably  certain,  no  good  ground  for 
connecting  the  builders  of  the  earthworks  of  the  Mississippi 
valley  with  the  Central  American  people  who  erected  the 
remarkable  monuments  which  will  hereafter  be  referred  to. 
But,  until  very  recently,  it  has  been  a  favorite  and  not  un- 
natural hypothesis  which  served  to  temporarily  appease  an 
ignorance,  pardonable  in  itself,  but  now  no  longer  neces- 
sary. 

Undoubtedly  America  bears  witness  to  a  venerable  past ; 
and  without  admitting  the  claims  of  some  recent  authors' 
who  are  of  opinion  that  when  Europe  was  inhabited  by 
wandering  savages,  whose  only  weapons  were  roughly  hewn 

'Francesco  Pimentel,  "  Lenguas  Indigenas  de  Mexico,"  vol.  I.,  p.  154. 

a  The  most  ancient  Mexican  traditions  speak  of  a  great  empire  in  the  North, 
to  which  the  name  of  Huehue  Tlapallan  was  given.  We  shall  have  to  recur  to 
this  question  again. 

*  Agassiz  and  Lyell  lead  those  who  insist  upon  the  great  antiquity  of  the 
American  continent.  The  latter  believes  the  Mississippi  to  have  flowed  along 
its  present  bed  for  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  years. — "  Second  Visit  to  the 
United  States,"  vol.  II.,  p.  188. 


14  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

of  stone,  America  was  already  peopled  by  men  who  built 
cities,  raised  monuments,  and  had  attained  to  a  high  degree 
of  culture,  we  must  admit  that  their  civilization  and  social 
organization  can  only  have  become  what  it  was  by  degrees. 
The  wealth  which  roused  the  avarice  of  the  Spaniards 
must  have  accumulated  slowly.  To  erect  the  monuments  of 
Mexico  and  Peru,  the  yet  more  ancient  ones  of  Central 
America, — the  singular  resemblance  of  which,  in  some  par- 
ticulars, to  the  temples  and  palaces  of  Egypt,1  strikes  the 
archaeologist, — must  have  required  skilled  labor,  a  numerous 
population,  and  an  established  priesthood,  such  as  could  have 
developed  only  during  the  lapse  of  centuries.  During  these 
centuries,  the  number  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  estimate, 
the  people  into  whose  origin  we  are  enquiring  were  preceded 
by  others  more  ignorant  and  barbarous.  It  is  certain  that 
all  over  the  world  civilization  has  increased  gradually  and 
by  slow  degrees.  This  is  a  fixed  law  of  humanity  to  which 
there  is  no  exception.  The  olden  time  was  not  without  its 
changes,  however  slowly  we  may  suppose  them  to  have  taken 
place.  "  The  oldest  monuments  of  human  labor,"  says 
Lyell  ("  Travels  in  North  America,"  vol.  II.,  p.  33),  "  are  things 
of  yesterday,  in  comparison  with  the  effects  of  physical 
causes  which  were  in  operation  after  the  existing  continents 
had  acquired  the  leading  features  of  hill  and  valley,  river  and 
lake,  which  now  belong  to  them."  To  sum  up  :  multitudes 
of  races  and  nations  have  arisen  upon  the  American  conti- 
nent and  have  disappeared,  leaving  no  trace  but  ruins, 
mounds,  a  few  wrought  stones,  or  fragments  of  pottery. 
History  can  only  preserve  facts  founded  on  written  records, 
or  bond  fide  traditions,  and  it  is  from  these  formulations  that 
it  builds  up  chronology  and  traces  the  pedigree  of  nations. 
Here  all  these  fail.  Those  whom  we  are  disposed  to  call 
aborigines  are  perhaps  but  the  conquerors  of  other  races  that 
preceded  them ;  conquerors  and  conquered  are  forgotten  in 
a  common  oblivion,  and  the  names  of  both  have  passed  from 
the  memory  of  man. 

1  For  these  analogies  see  "  Ensayo  de  un  estuclio  comparative  entre  la  Pira- 
mide  Egyptias  y  Mexicanas,"  Mexico,  1871. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  15 

Who  and  what,  then,  were  the  first  inhabitants  of 
America  ?  Whence  did  they  come  ?  To  what  immigra- 
tion was  their  arrival  due?  By  what  disasters  were  they 
destroyed  ?  By  what  routes  did  they  reach  these  unknown 
lands  ?  Must  we  admit  different  centres  of  creation  ? 
and  were  the  primeval  Americans  born  on  American  soil  ? 
Could  evolution  and  natural  selection,  those  principles 
so  fully  accepted  by  the  modern  school,  have  produced 
on  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  a  type  of  man 
resembling  the  European  and  the  Asiatic,  alike  in  the  struc- 
ture of  his  frame  and  in  his  intellectual  development  ?  Vast 
and  formidable  are  the  problems  involved  in  these  ques- 
tions, for  they  affect  at  once  the  past  and  the  future  of  the 
human  race.  We  are,  however,  already  in  a  position  to 
assert  that  the  earliest  vestiges  of  man  in  America  and 
in  Europe  resemble  each  other  exactly,  and  by  no  means  the 
least  extraordinary  part  of  the  case  is  that  in  the  New, 
as  in  the  Old  World,  men  began  the  struggle  for  existence 
with  almost  identical  means. 

One  fact  now  is  incontestably  secured  to  science  :  Man  ex- 
isted in  the  Old  World  in  the  Quaternary  period.  He  was 
the  contemporary,  and  often  the  victim,  of  large  animals, 
the  great  strength  of  which  can  be  estimated  from  the  skele- 
tons preserved  in  our  museums.  Our  early  ancestors  had  to 
struggle  with  the  bears  and  lions  of  the  caves,  with  the  ter- 
rible Machairodm  with  tusks  as  sharp  as  the  blade  of  a 
dagger,  with  the  Mammoth,  and  the  Rhinoceros  tichorinus  ; 
perhaps,  also,  with  the  yet  more  ancient  Elephas  antiques 
and  Rhinoceros  etruscus.  The  first  Americans  too  were  con- 
temporary with  gigantic  animals  which,  like  their  con- 
querors of  Europe,  have  passed  away  never  to  return. 
Tlu-y  had  to  contend  with  the  Mastodon,  the  Megatherium, 
(fig.  i),  the  Mylodon  (fig.  2),  the  Megalonyx,  the  elephant,1 
with  a  jaguar  larger  than  that  of  the  present  day,  and  a 
bear  more  formidable  than  that  of  the  caves.*  Like  our 

1  Elephas  Colombi  (Owen).  Found  in  both  Americas,  but  it  disappeared 
from  the  North  sooner  tbr.n  from  the  South. 

8  Amongst  fossil  species  we  must  mention  '.V  Fquidae,    of  which  numerous 


l6  PRE-U1STOK1C  AMERICA. 

forefathers  they  had  to  attack  and  overcome  them  with  stone 
hatchets,  obsidian  knives,  and  all  the  wretched  weapons  the 
importance  of  which  we  have  been  so  long  in  recognizing  in 
America  as  in  Europe.  By  the  inevitable  law  of  progress, 
intelligence  prevailed  over  brute  force ;  the  animal,  in  spite 
of  its  powerful  weapons  of  offence  and  defence,  was  van- 
quished in  a  struggle  in  which  every  thing  seemed  to  be  in 
its  favor ;  and  man,  weak  and  naked  though  he  was,  lived  on 
and  perpetuated  his  race. 


FIG.  i. — The  Megatherium. 

Primeval  man  had  not  only  to  contend  with  pachyderma- 
tous1 and  edentate8  animals:  the  period  during  which 
he  lived  was  marked  by  floods,  of  which  man  still  retains 
traditions.  "  If  I  may  judge  "  says  the  Abbe"  Brasseur  de 
Bourbourg, '  "from  allusions  in  the  documents  that  I  have 
been  fortunate  enough  to  collect,  there  were  in  these 

varieties  occur  from  the  United  States  to  the  La  Plata.  Recently  the  bones  of 
a  horse  have  been  found  in  Nebraska  which  differed  little  from  our  own 
Equus  Caballus.  Of  these  equine  forms  we  may  name  the  Hipparion, 
Anchitherium,  Protohippus,  Orohippus,  etc.,  which  appear  to  have  been 
the  ancestors  of  the  modern  horse.  Gaudry,  "  Les  Enchainements  du  Monde 
Animal."  Ameghino  in  "La  Antiguedad  del  Hombre,"  vol.  I.,  p.  195,  con- 
cludes from  this  consecutive  series  that  the  horse  is  of  American  origin. 

1  From  the  Greek  Ttaxvdepj^o?  ;  or,  thick-skinned, 

1  From  the  Latin,  Edentatus  ;  or,  toothless. 

*  Arch,  de  la  Com.  Scienlifique  du  Mexique,  vol.  I.,  p.  95. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  \J 

regions,  at  that  remote  date,  convulsions  of  nature,  deluges, 
terrible  inundations,  followed  by  the  upheaval  of  mountains, 
accompanied  by  volcanic  eruptions.  These  traditions, 
traces  of  which  are  also  met  with  in  Mexico,  Central  Ameri- 
ca, Peru,  and  Bolivia,  point  to  the  conclusion  that  man  ex- 
isted in  these  various  countries  at  the  time  of  the  upheaval 
of  the  Cordilleras,  and  that  the  memory  of  that  upheaval 
has  been  preserved."1  Amongst  these  changes  must  doubt- 


FIG.  2.— The  Mylodon. 

less  be  included  the  glacial  epoch  which  played  so  important 
a  part  in  North  America,  and  of  which  such  striking  traces 
are  met  with  over  an  extensive  region.  These  traces  are 
rocks  striated  or  moutonntes  (rounded  like  a  sheep's  back)  by 
the  friction  of  glaciers,  moraines,  drift  gravels,  terraces,  and 
huge  erratic  blocks  which  were  carried  by  the  ice.  In  New 
England  glacial  striae  have  been  met  with  at  a  height  of 

1  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  observe  that  this  remark  is  one  of  many  in  the 
writings  of  the  learned  but  credulous  author,  which  testify  more  to  the  strength 
of  his  enthusiasm  than  to  the  coolness  of  his  judgment. 


1 8  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

3,000  feet;  in  Ohio,  the  loftiest  reach  1,400  feet;  while 
those  in  Iowa,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin  attain  a  height  of 
about  1,200  feet  above  the  sea-level.1  In  California,  a  large 
area  bears  witness  to  the  action  of  glaciers  which  came  down 
from  the  Sierra  Nevada  ;  while  even  in  the  forests  of  Brazil, 
in  the  countries  watered  by  the  Amazon,  as  well  as  on  the 
vast  savannahs  of  the  Meta  and  the  Apure  are  found  erratic 
blocks  of  conical  form,  which  some  observers  suppose  to 
have  been  brought  down  by  great  glaciers  from  the  Andes.2 
Agassiz3  tells  of  similar  phenomena  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  tropics,  in  the  valleys  of  the  Amazon  and  the  Rio  de  la 
Plata,  and  he  considered  them  to  be  so  numerous  that  he 
could  not  but  conclude  that  they  extend  all  over  the  Ameri- 
can continent. 

Professor  Cook,  State  Geologist  of  New  Jersey,  has  made  a 
map  of  the  glaciers  of  New  Jersey.  A  huge  glacier  travelled 
slowly  from  north  to  south,  grinding,  scratching,  and  pol- 
ishing all  in  its  path,  tearing  from  the  rocks  it  came  across 
blocks  weighing  some  twenty  tons,  which  it  deposited  in  a 
terminal  moraine  as  eternal  witnesses  of  its  passage.  This 
moraine  can  still  be  seen  as  a  vast  accumulation  of  broken 
rock,  gravel,  and  clay,  extending  from  the  Raritan  to  the 
Delaware. 

These  periods  of  glaciation  seem  to  have  been  intermit- 
tent or  perhaps  recurrent.  Sutton  describes  two  wholly  dis- 
tinct deposits  in  Kentucky.4  According  to  him,  one  of  those 
deposits  is  of  earlier  date  than  the  formation  of  the  Ohio 
valley,  and  the  second  was  not  made  until  after  the  river 
had  hollowed  out  its  present  bed.  A  few  years  ago,  Profes- 
sor Newberry  announced  his  discovery,  on  the  very  banks  of 
the  Ohio,  of  a  "  Forest  Bed  "  containing  the  bones  of  the 

1  Col.  Whittlesey.  Proc.  Am.  Assoc.  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  Buf- 
falo, 1866. 

5  Bull.  Soe.  de  G<!og.,  April,  1880. 

3  "Journey  in  Brazil."     Other  geologists,  after  more  careful  study,  are  dis- 
posed to  doubt  the  glacial  origin  of  the  deposits  in  Brazil  which  so  much  re, 
semble  the  drift. 

4  Proc.  Ant.  Assoc.  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  Buffalo,  1866. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  19 

mastodon,  the  mammoth,  and  of  a  large  beaver-like  animal ' 
intercalated  between  two  beds  of  clay,  the  glacial  origin  of 
which  appeared  to  him  beyond  a  doubt.  Unequivocal  traces 
of  two  periods  had  already  been  observed  near  Lake  Supe- 
rior. It  is  easy  to  distinguish  traces  of  the  one  from  those 
of  the  other ;  during  the  first  the  glaciers  drifted  from  the 
northeast  to  the  southwest ;  during  the  second,  from  the 
north  to  the  south.  During  the  period  intervening  between 
the  two,  North  America,  especially  those  districts  forming 
the  state  of  Ohio,  was  covered  with  magnificent  forests, 
where  mastodons  and  megatheria  found  alike  a  safe  retreat 
and  the  abundant  food  they  required,  as  proved  beyond  a 
doubt  by  the  remains  of  their  bones  mixed  with  those  of 
huge  plants.*  Lastly  the  Geological  Survey  of  Canada3  has 
in  its  turn  quite  recently  authenticated  two  glacial  periods  : 
the  first  and  most  terrible  must  have  coincided  with  a  gen- 
eral invasion  of  the  ice  sheet ;  the  other  with  a  subsequent 
development  of  merely  local  glaciers. 

From  what  remote  period  does  this  glaciation  date  ?  It  is 
difficult  for  the  human  imagination  to  grasp  its  causes  or  its 
duration  ;  history  and  tradition  are  alike  silent  about  them  ; 
we  only  know  that,  as  soon  as  it  came  to  an  end,  inundations 
characterized  by  violent  torrents  achieved  the  modification 
of  the  valleys  of  to-day,  and  gave  to  the  river  system  of 
America  the  physical  configuration  which  since  then  has  been 
but  little  changed. 

Man  lived  through  these  convulsions4;  he  survived  the 
rigors  of  the  cold ;  he  survived  the  floods,  as  the  recent  dis- 
coveries of  Dr.  Abbott 6  in  the  glacial  deposits  of  the  Dela- 

1  Castoroides  Ohioensis,  Foster. 

1  American  Journal  of  Science,  vol.  V.,  p.  240. 

8  Geological  Survey  of  Canada,  "  Report  of  Progress  for  1877-8." 

4  "  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt,"  says  Putnam,  "  the  general  conclusion  in  re- 
gard to  the  existence  of  man  in  glacial  times,  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North 
America." 

*  "  Primitive  Industry,"  Salem,  Mass.,  1881.  "  Palaeolithic  Implements  from 
the  Drift  in  the  Valley  of  the  Delaware  River,  near  Trenton,  New  Jersey." 
"  Report  Peabody  Museum,"  1876  and  1878.  Th.  Belt :  "  Discovery  of  Stone 
Instruments  in  the  Glacial  Drift  in  North  America."  London,  1878. 


2O  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

ware,1  near  Trenton,  N.  J.,  seem  to  prove  beyond  a  doubt. 
In  the  post-tertiary  alluvial  deposits,  consisting  of  beds  of 
sand  and  gravel,  at  a  depth  varying  from  five  to  twenty  feet, 
Abbott  found  a  considerable  number  of  implements  evidently 
fashioned  by  the  hand  of  man  (figs.  3,  4,  5),  and  greatly  re- 
sembling the  palaeolithic  implements  of  Europe,  especially 
the  most  ancient  of  all,  those  of  St.  Acheul,  or  of  Chelles. 


FIG.  3. — Stone  implement  from  FIG.   4. — Scraper    found  in  the  Dela- 

the  Delaware  valley.  ware  valley. 

The  objects  are  of  very  hard  trap,2  an  argillaceous  rock  of 
volcanic  origin.  Owing  to  the  difficulty  of  working  it  is  due 

1  The  Delaware  flows  into  the  Atlantic  after  a  course  of  three  hundred  and 
fifty  miles.  It  forms  the  boundary  between  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey. 
Some  geologists  think  that  part  of  the  American  continent  was  submerged  dur- 
ing the  glacial  epoch.  At  that  time  the  Delaware  certainly  flowed  into  the 
sea  near  Trenton,  which  is  now  130  miles  inland. 

"  Why  should  this  recently  displaced  material  only  yield  the  rudest  forms  of 
chipped  stone  implements,  when  the  surface  is  literally  covered  in  some  places 
with  ordinary  Indian  relics,  not  a  specimen  of  which  has  as  yet  occurred  in  this 
gravel?"  Abbott,  "  Report  Peabody  Museum,"  1876,  p.  35. 

9  The  deposit  of  trap  nearest  to  Trenton  is  thirty  miles  farther  north. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  21 

the  fact  that  the  secondary  chipping  is  not  so  perfect  as,  for 
instance,  it  is  in  the  flint  axes  of  the  valley  of  the  Somme.1 
They  occur  in  the  midst  of  boulders,  some  of  them  twenty 
feet  in  diameter,  and  of  rocks  striated  and  polished  by  the 
action  of  ice,  or  which  have  been  swept  along  by  torrents  of 
water.  One  of  the  implements  has  scratches  exactly  similar 
to  those  of  the  stones  amongst  which  it  was  found.  This  is 
too  important  a  fact  to  be  omitted. 


FIG.  5. — Stone  weapon  from  the  Delaware  valley. 

The  Trenton  discovery  is  not  an  isolated  one.  Dr.  Abbott 
found  other  objects,  on  which  the  work  of  human  hands  is 
no  less  evident,  in  different  parts  of  New  Jersey,  and  he  is 
convinced,  that  a  search  made  on  scientific  principles  would 
yield  similar  results  in  all  the  valleys  of  this  state.  From 
the  inlands  of  the  Susquehanna  have  been  obtained  imple- 
ments exactly  resembling  the  rudest  forms  of  Scandinavian 

1  H.  W.  Haynes  :  "The  Argillite  Implements  Found  in  the  Gravels  of 
Delaware  River."— Proc.  Boston  Society  of  Nat.  Hist.,  Jan.,  1881. 


22  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

origin.1  Like  those  of  Trenton,  they  were  made  by  men 
who  probably  lived  during  the  glacial  epoch,  and  certainly 
preceded  by  many  centuries  those  inhabiting  North  America 
on  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards.* 

A  member  of  the  Commission  d' Exploration  du  Mexique, 
M.  Guillemin  Tarayre,  speaks  of  the  occurrence  of  worked 
stones  in  the  post-tertiary  beds.  He  had  not  time  to  con- 
tinue his  researches,  but  late  discoveries  seem  to  confirm  his 
report.  A  hatchet  has  been  found  in  the  Rio  Juchipila,  near 
the  old  town  of  Teul ;  in  the  Guanajuato,  a  spear  point  of 


FIG.  6. — Hatchet  from  the  alluvial  deposits  of  the  Rio  Juchipila. 

the  palaeolithic  type ;  in  another  place  an  axe  like  those  of 
St.  Acheul,  and  a  scraper  which  is  a  fac-simile  of  those 
abounding  in  European  museums,  (figs.  6,  7,  and  8).  The 
scraper  (fig.  8)  was  found  a  short  distance  from  Mexico,  in 
the  undisturbed  post-tertiary  deposits,  and  the  numerous 
remains  of  the  Elephas  Colombi,  mixed  with  productions 

'Letter  of  Prof.  Haldeman  of  the  27th  Sept.,  1877.  "Report  Peabody 
Museum,"  1878,  p.  255.  We  must  also  mention  a  stone  hammer  found  at 
Pemberton,  New  Jersey  (fig.  9),  on  which  some  have  supposed  they  recog- 
nized the  Swastika,  that  sacred  sign  of  the  Aryans  which  occurs  amongst  the 
Hindoos,  Persians,  Trojans,  Pelasgians,  Celts,  and  Germanic  races.  On  the 
Pemberton  hammer  it  is  roughly  enough  executed,  even  if  the  intent  of  the 
artist  was  to  reproduce  it,  which  there  is  no  reason  to  believe. 

*  Nature,  1878,  part  I.,  p.  262  ;  Ameghino,  vol.  I,,  p.  148. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON. 


of  man,  indicate  that  man  and   this  proboscidian  were  con- 
temporaries. 

Hewn  stone  implements,  the  work  of  their  hands,  are  not 
the  only  relics  of  the  early  inhabitants  of  America.  In 
many  places  human  bones  have  been  found,  associated  with 
numerous  fragments  of  extinct  animals.1  Lund  was  one  of 


FIG.  7. — A  lance  head  found 
near  Guanajuato. 


FIG.   8. — Stone  scraper  from  a  valley 
near  Mexico. 


the  first "  to  call  attention  to  them.     In  a  cave  excavated  in 

1  The  earliest  examinations  were  very  superficial  and  the  mistakes  made 
are  incredible.  I  cannot  give  a  better  proof  of  this  than  by  mentioning  the 
acceptance  as  human  remains  by  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  a  century  and 
a  half  ago,  of  the  bones  of  a  mastodon  found  near  Albany,  New  York.  ' '  Philos. 
Transactions,"  vol.  XXIX.,  1714. 

*  "  On  the  Occurrence  of  Fossil  Human  Bones  in  South  America."  Nott 
and  Gliddon,  "Types  of  Mankind,"  p.  350.  Lacerda  and  Peixotto,  "  Con- 
tribui9oes  aoEstudo  Anthropologico  das  Ra9aslndigenas  do  Brazil." — Archives 
do  Museo  National,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  1876. 


24  PRE-HISTOR1C  AMERICA. 

the  limestone  rocks  on  the  borders  of  the  little  lake  known 
as  the  Lagoa  do  Sumidouro,  in  the  province  of  Minas  Geraes, 
Brazil,1  he  dug  out  the  bones  of  more  than  thirty  individuals, 
of  both  sexes  and  every  age,  from  those  of  an  infant  to  those 
of  a  decrepit  old  man. 

Some  skulls  were  found  among  these  remains,  remarkable 
for  their  pyramidal  form  and  the  narrowness  of  their  fore- 
heads. Lund,  writing  a  few  years  later,  speaks  *  of  some 
lower  jaws  which  had  not  only  lost  all  their  teeth,  but  were 
so  much  worn  that  they  looked  like  a  bony  plate  but  a  few 


FIG.Q. — Stone  hammer  from  Pemberton,  New  Jersey. 

lines  in  thickness.  Several  skulls  had  holes  in  them,  all  of 
the  same  size,  of  a  regular  and  oblong  shape.  These  were 
probably  inflicted  with  stone  weapons,  and  were  wounds  of 
so  serious  a  nature  that  the  injured  cannot  have  long  sur- 
vived them. 

The  skeletons,3  were  mixed  together  in  such  great  confu- 

1  This  cave  is  three  leagues  from  Santa  Lucia,  between  the  Las  Velhas  and 
Paraopeba  rivers. 

2  Letter  from  Lund  to  Rafn,  dated  from  Lagoa  Santa,  28th  of  March  1844  ; 
Mtm.  Soc.  Roy.  des  Antiquaires  de  Nord,   1845,  p.  49.  Cartailhac,  "  Materiaux 
pour  1'histoire  de  1'  homme,"  January,  1882. 

1  The  word  skeleton  is  perhaps  inappropriate  ;  most  of  the  skulls  being  piled 
up  apart,  whilst  another  heap  was  made  of  small  bones,  such  as  those  of  the 
fingers  and  toes,  the  wrist  or  ankle. — Letter  from  Lund  quoted  above. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  2$ 

sion  as  to  forbid  the  idea  of  their  having  been  buried,  and 
were  lying  upon  the  red  earth,  the  original  soil  of  the  cave. 
They  were  imbedded  in  hard  clay  with  calcareous  incrusta- 
tions, and  covered  with  large  blocks  of  stone,  which  had 
fallen  on  them  from  the  walls  or  roof  of  the  cave. 

Mixed  up  promiscuously  with  the  human  remains  were 
found  those  of  several  animals,  chiefly  feline '  and  cervine,* 
still  extant  in  the  same  region,  together  with  others  belonging 
to  species  which  have  now  migrated  or  become  extinct. 
Amongst  the  last  we  may  name  a  monkey,  (Callithrix 
prim&vus),  a  rodent  of  the  size  of  the  tapir,  (Hydrochcerus 
sulcidens),  a  peccary  (Dicotyles)  twice  as  large  as  the  living 
species,  a  horse  very  similar  to  our  own,  a  large  cat  bigger 
than  the  jaguar  (Felis  protopantlier),  a  llama  (Auchenia),  a 
Megatherium  (Aceltdothcrium,  Owen),  and  several  others, 
such  as  CJilamydotherium  Humboldtii,  an  edentate  of  the  size 
of  the  tapir,  and  the  Platyonyx  of  Lund. 

The  chemical  constituents  of  the  human  bones  are  the 
same  as  those  of  the  animals  with  which  they  were  associ- 
ated, whether  in  the  soil  which  has  remained  loose  or  in  that 
which  calcareous  infiltration  has  converted  into  a  breccia  of 
great  hardness.3  Doubtless  these  men  and  animals  lived 
together  and  perished  together,  common  victims  of  catastro- 
phes, the  time  and  cause  of  which  are  alike  unknown. 

These  were  the  results  of  Lund's  first  efforts.4  Pursuing 
his  researches  in  the  province  of  MinasGeracs,  where  he  had 
the  perseverance  and  energy,  in  spite  of  constant  difficulties, 
to  search  more  than  a  thousand  caves,  he  met  with  human 
bones  again  amongst  important  animal  remains,  but  only  in 
six  of  all  the  caves  examined.  By  prolonged  and  careful 
work  he  succeeded  in  gathering  complete  specimens  of  forty- 
four  species  now  extinct,  including  several  monkeys,  some 
hoplophori,6  which  were  as  large  as  our  oxen,  and  the  Smilo- 

1  The  Puma  (Felis  concolor),  the  Ocelot,  (Felis pardalis). 

*  Cervus  rufus  and  C.  simplicomis.    Dasypus  longicaudis  and  D.  mints. 

*  De  Quatrefages  Congrh  Anthrop.  de  Moscou,  1879.  P-  &• 

*  Lund  devoted  forty-eight  years  of  his  life  to  the  study  of  the  fossil  fauna  of 
Bra/.il. 

6  H.  euphratus,  H.  Selloyi,  H,  minor ;  the  last  much  smaller  than  its  con- 


26  PRE-HISTOR1C  AMERICA. 

don,  a  large  feline  animal  akin  to  the  Machairodus  or  sabre- 
toothed  tiger,  which  inhabited  Europe  in  post-tertiary  times. 

Lund  claims  the  presence  of  man  on  the  American  conti- 
nent from  very  remote  antiquity,  telling  us  *  that  it  dated 
in  South  America  not  only  earlier  than  the  discovery  of  that 
part  of  the  world  by  Europeans,  but  far  back  in  historic 
times, — perhaps  even  farther  than  that,  in  geological  times, — 
as  several  species  of  animals  seem  to  have  disappeared  from 
the  fauna  since  the  appearance  of  man  in  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere. The  learned  Dane  did  not  arrive  at  this  conclusion 
without  much  hesitation,  which  is  reflected  in  his  writings. 
Indeed,  at  first,  after  his  remarkable  discoveries,  he  dated 
the  bones  of  the  Lagoa  Santa  within  historic  times.* 

M.  Gaudry  accepts  without  hesitation  Lund's  final  con- 
clusions.* He  thinks,  however,  that  a  distinction  must  be 
recognized  between  two  post-tertiary  deposits  in  the  Sumi- 
douro  cave.  The  first  and  thickest  is  characterized  by  the 
occurrence  of  the  bones  of  the  extinct  animals,  such  as  the 
Platyonyx  and  the  Chlamydotherium,  and  must  correspond 
with  the  age  of  the  Mammoth  in  Europe  and  North  America ; 
the  second  stratum  is  characterized  by  the  occurrence  of  more 
recent  species,  and  would  be  represented  by  the  Reindeer 
period  of  Europe.  It  is  with  the  latter  that  the  human 
bones  must  be  connected.  The  only  proofs,  therefore,  that 
we  have  of  the  existence  of  man  in  Brazil  during  the  post- 
tertiary  period  are  of  more  recent  date  than  the  traces  of 
pre-historic  man  in  Europe  ;  but  we  must  hasten  to  add  that 
this  conclusion  may  easily  be  modified  by  later  discoveries 

geners.     Pictet  places  the  hoplophori  with  the  glyptodonts  amongst  the  Eden- 
tates ("  Palaeontology,"  vol.   I.,  p.  273),  but  there  is  nothing  to  prove,  as  has 
been  claimed,  that  the  Hoplophorus  had  a  cuirass  like  that  of  the  Glyptodon. 
1  Letter  to  Rafn,  p.  5. 

*  "  In  my  opinion,"  said  M.  De  Quatrefages,  at  Moscow,  "  the  honor  is  in- 
contestably  due  to  Lund  of  having  discovered  fossil  man  on  the  American  con- 
tinent, and  of  having  proved  his  discovery  at  a  time  when  the  existence  of  that 
man  was  considered  more  than   doubtful  by  the  most   competent    European 
authorities," 

*  His  letter  was  quoted  by  M.  De  Quatrefages  :     Congr.  Anthrop.  de  Mos- 
cou,  1879. 


J/./.V  A. YD    Tltr.    MASTODON.  2  7 

In  the  French  colony  of  Guiana,  man  existed  when  a 
large  portion  of  the  country  was  submerged  in  consequence 
of  a  subsidence  of  the  soil.  Traces  of  his  occupation  can  be 
made  out,  and  polished  stone  hatchets  have  been  found  on 
the  banks  of  the  Maroni,  Sinnamari,  Cayenne,  and  Aprou- 
ague  rivers.1  Strobel  has  recently  described8  earthenware 
vessels  of  the  most  primitive  construction,  and  chalcedony 
arrow-heads  from  the  banks  of  the  La  Plata,  which  appear 
to  have  belonged  to  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  that  region  ; 
and  the  paraderos  *  of  Patagonia  have  yielded  many  trian- 
gular arrow-points,  some  resembling  European,  others  Peru- 
vian types*  (fig.  10).  Under  very  different  biological  and 


FIG.  10. — Arrow-point  from  Patagonia. 

climatic  conditions,  pre-historic  man  has  produced  objects 
exactly  similar.  We  shall  often  recur  to  this  singular  fact, 
which  is  in  full  accord  with  modern  research  in  other 
sciences  as  well  as  archaeology. 

We  must  enumerate  the  most  important  of  these  recent 

1  Maurel,  Bull.  Soc.  Anthr.,  April,  1878. 

"  Material!  di  Paleontologia  comparata,  racolti  in  Sud- America. "     Parma, 
1868. 

1  The  word  paraderos  comes  from  parar,  to  sojourn.  The  paraderos  arc 
supposed  to  occupy  the  sites  of  ancient  habitations,  on  account  of  the  numerous 
fragments  of  burnt  earth  strewn  about  them,  which  seem  to  have  been  used  for 
hearths. 

4  Moreno  :  "  Les  Paraderos  preh.  de  la  Patagonie,"  Rev.  a"  Anthr.,  1874. 


28 


PKE-IIISTORIC  AMERICA. 


discoveries.  Several  years  ago  S6guin  collected  on  the 
borders  of  the  Rio  Carcarafia  (in  the  province  of  Buenos 
Ayres)  numerous  bones  of  extinct  animals,1  including  those 
of  a  bear  larger  than  the  cave  bear/  a  horse,  the  mastodon, 
and  the  megatherium.  With  these  remains  lay  human 
bones,  such  as  fragments  of  skulls,  jaw-bones,  vertebrae,  ribs, 
long  bones,  belonging  to  at  least  four  different  individuals. 
The  material  in  which  they  were  imbedded  resembled  in 
every  respect  that  containing  the  bones  of  animals,  and 
there  could  be  no  serious  doubt  as  to  their  being  contempo- 


FIG.  II. — Arrow-points  in  the  Ameghino  collection. 

raneous.  This  was  not,  however,  the  case  with  four  imple- 
ments of  hewn  stone *  of  the  neolithic  type ;  they  were,  it  is 
true,  found  in  the  same  formation,  but  not  in  the  same 
stratum,  so  that  with  regard  to  them  certain  reservations 
must  be  made.4 

We  will  now  speak  of  another  explorer.     Ameghino*  tells 

1  Gervais,  Journal  de  Zoologie,  vol.  II.,  1872.      The  mammals  of  which  Se- 
guin    found    remains,    are    the   Arctotherium   Jionoetiensis,   the  Hydrochcerus 
magnus,  the  Mastodon,  the  Megatherium  Americamts,  the  Lestodon  trigonidens, 
the  Euryurus  rudis,  and  a  horse  of  uncertain  species  (Ameghino,  "  La  Anti- 
guedad  del  Hombre  en  el  Plata,"  vol.  II.,  p.  526). 

2  Ursus  spelaus  :  its  bones  occur  in  great  numbers  in  all   the    post-tertiary 
strata  of  Europe. 

3  Three  are  of  quartzite,  one  of  chalcedony. 

4  Some  of  these  bones  and  of  the  hewn  flints  collected  by  Seguin  were  exhib- 
ited at  the  Exposition  of  1867.     They  are  now  in  the  Paris  Museum. 

6  Letter  of  October  31,  1875,  in  the  Journal  de  Zoologie,  vol.  IV. ;  "  L'Homme 
preh.  dans  la  Plata"  (Rev.  d' Anthr.,  1879-1880);  "La  Antiguedad  del 
Hombre  en  el  Plata,"  2  vols.,  8vo,  Paris,  1881. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  2Q 

us  that  on  the  banks  of  the  little  stream  of  Frias  near  Mer- 
cedes, twenty  leagues  from  Buenos  Ayres,  he  met  with  a 
number  of  human  fossils,  mixed  with  quantities  of  charcoal, 
pottery,  burnt  and  scratched  bones,  arrow-heads,  chisels, 
and  stone  knives  (fig.  11),  together  with  a  number  of  the 
bones  of  extinct  animals1  on  which  were  marks  of  chopping 
evidently  done  by  the  hand  of  man,  pointed  bones,  knives, 
and  bone-polishers.  Afterward  Ameghino  discovered  the 
actual  dwelling  of  this  early  American,  and  his  singular 
choice  was  the  carapax  of  a  gigantic  armadillo  scientifically 
known  as  the  glyptodon."  All  around  the  shell  lay  charcoal, 


FIG.  12. — The  Glyptodon. 

ashes,  burnt  and  split  bones,  and  a  few  flints.  The  reddish 
earth  of  the  original  soil  was  consolidated.  Below  this 
level  exploration  revealed  a  stone  implement,  long  bones  of 

1  In  the  remarkable  wock  to  which  we  refer  our  readers,  Ameghino  gives 
complete  details  on  the  flora  and  fauna  of  the  pampas.  A  table  in  vol.  II. 
shows  the  tertiary  fauna  of  Patagonia,  the  fauna  of  the  upper  and  lower  pam- 
pas, of  the  lacustrine  pampas,  of  recent  alluvial  deposits,  and  lastly  of  the  fauna 
of  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest.  By  the  help  of  this  table  it  is  easy  to 
form  an  idea  of  the  range  in  time  of  each  of  the  different  species.  The  mam- 
mals, bones  of  which  were  found  by  Ameghino  mixed  with  those  of  man,  are  : 
The  Cam's  cultridens,  the  Hydrocharus  sulciJens,  the  Reithrodon,  the  Toxodon 
Platensis,,  an  Equus,  an  Auchenia  and  a  Cervus  of  undetermined  species,  the 
Mylodon  robustus,  the  Panochirtus  tuberculatus,  the  Glyptodon  reticulatus,  and 
the  G.  typus("  Ant.  del  Hombre,"  vol.  II.,  chs.  X.,  XI.,  XIV.,  and  XV.). 

1  Pictet  places  this  animal  in  the  Armadillo  family  amongst  the  Edentates. 
Burmeister  (Ann.  de  Museo  Publico  de  Buenos  Ayres)  mentions  a  glyptodon  of 
which  the  shell  measured  five  and  a  half  feet  long  by  about  four  feet  wide  and 
three  high. 


30  PKB-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

the  deer  and  llama,  some  split  and  bearing  evident  traces  of 
human  workmanship,  and  teeth  of  the  mylodon  and  toxo- 
don,  also  worked.  Still  later  the  discovery  of  another  glyp- 
todon  shell  under  nearly  similar  conditions  strengthened 
Ameghino's  convictions.1  In  the  midst  of  the  pampas, 
those  vast  plains  without  a  tree  or  rock  behind  which  man 
might  shelter  himself  from  attack  by  the  gigantic  animals 
wandering  about,  his  mother-wit  did  not  desert  him.  Dig- 
ging a  hole  in  the  ground,  he  roofed  it  with  the  shell  of  a 
vanquished  glyptodon,  thus  forming  a  cave-like  retreat. 

Ameghino's  discoveries  led  to  long  discussions.  Bur- 
meister  *  rejected  the  theory  of  the  contemporaneity  of  the 
men  and  mammals  whose  bones  were  found  together.  The 
Argentine  Scientific  Society  even  refused  to  listen  to  the 
reading  of  a  memoir  upon  the  subject.  We  cannot  accept 
these  decisions.  Ameghino  asserts  that  the  human  bones 
were  mixed  with  those  of  the  animals  3  and  that  both  were 
covered  with  dendritic  deposits  of  the  oxides  of  iron  and 
manganese  derived  from  the  soil.  The  same  dendrites  are 
met  with  in  the  striae,  which  is  positive  proof  that  these 
grooves  and  scratches,  which  must  have  been  the  work  of 
man,  were  of  earlier  date  than  the  interment  of  the  bones. 
Other  bones  had  been  split  open  to  get  out  the  marrow, 
pointed  in  the  shape  of  an  arrow  or  dagger,  and  blackened 
by  fire.  The  charcoal  and  burnt  earth  4  were  certain  indi- 

1  "El  Hombre  seguramente  habitaba  las  corazas  de  los  Glyptodon,  pero  no 
siempre  las  colocaba  en  la  posicion  que  acabo  de  indicar  "  ("  La  Antiguedad 
del  Hombre,"  vol.  II.,  p.  532). 

*  Los  caballos  fossiles  de  la  pantpa  Argentina.  Later  Burmeister  was  less 
positive  :  "  No  parece,"he  says,  "  que  scan  contemporaneos  de  los  animales  de 
la  epoca  inferior  porque  carecemos  de  pruebas  para  determinar  con  seguridad 
que  hayan  vividosimultaneamente." — "  Descripcion  fisica  de  la  Republica  Ar- 
gentina." 

s  Ameghino  (Vol.  II.,  p.  424)  gives  a  list  of  the  animals  to  which  the  striated 
bones  belonged. 

4  "  En  algunos  puntos  se  encuentra  una  gran  cantidad  de  fragmentos  in- 
formes  de  tierra  cocido  de  color  ladrilloso.  Que  es  lo  que  indican  ?  Son  los 
productos  de  los  primeros  ensayos  en  el  arte  ceramico  6  son  el  simple  resultado 
de  la  accion  del  fuego  de  un  fogon  enciditto  por  el  hombre  de  la  epoca  del 
Glyptodon." — "  Ameghino."  Vol.  I.,  p.  427. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  31 

cations  of  the  hearths  of  men.  The  stones  could 
have  been  fashioned  only  by  the  hand  of  man. 
We  think,  therefore,  with  Ameghino,  that  man  lived  in 
South  America  with  animals  long  since  extinct ;  that  he 
chased  the  deer,  the  llamas,  and  several  little  rodents  whose 
bones  occur  with  his  own  ;  that  he  was  not  afraid  to  at- 
tack the  glyptodon,  toxodon,1  the  megatherium,  and  the 
mastodon.  Their  flesh  served  for  his  food,  their  skins  for 
his  garments,  and  their  bones  became  his  implements  and 
weapons,  in  lieu  of  silicious  and  quartzite  stones,  which 
often  were  only  to  be  obtained  from  a  distance.  All  this 
seems  to  us  to  be  absolutely  proved.8 

There  remains  one  important  question  to  be  solved.  At 
what  period  were  the  pampas  formed  ?  To  what  geological 
time  must  we  assign  the  upper  stratum  where  the  human 
bones  were  found?  Darwin  considers  it  of  recent,  Burmeis- 
ter  of  Quaternary,  and  Bravard  and  Ameghino  of  Pliocene 
formation.  Opinions  differ  no  less  as  to  the  mode  of  its  for- 
mation. D'Orbigny  says  that,  in  Tertiary  times,  the  sea 
covered  a  great  part  of  the  Argentine  territory ;  the  up- 
heaval of  the  Andes  caused  great  changes  in  the  adjacent 
region,  and,  incidentally,  the  formation  of  the  pampean  de- 
posits of  argillaceous  sand.  Darwin  also  admits  this  hy- 
pothesis.3 Lund  thinks  the  pampas  are  alluvial  deposits, 
brought  by  a  great  flood  which  covered  the  whole  of  South 
America.  Bravard  sees  in  them  the  result  of  volcanic  cin- 
ders, sand,  and  dust  drifted  by  strong  winds  ;  other  geolo- 
gists think  they  are  the  sediment  brought  down  in  the  time 
of  great  floods  by  the  countless  streams  flowing  from  the 
Andes.  Dr.  Burmeister  speaks  of  the  action  of  ice.  To 

1  Toxodon  platcnsis,  Owen.  The  first  was  discovered  on  the  borders  of  the 
Rio  Negro,  120  miles  northwest  of  Montevideo  ;  the  length  of  its  head  was 
two  feet  four  inches.  Later,  several  species  have  been  recognized. 

a  Ameghino's  has  not  remained  the  only  discovery.  We  shall  mention  an- 
other later  (Chap.  IX.). 

3  It  is  remarkable  that  the  deposits  of  the  pampas  contain  no  marine  shells. 
This  is  a  serious  objection  to  the  exclusive  system  advocated  by  Darwin  and 
D'Orbigny. 


32  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

him  the  pampean  deposits  appear  to  be  some  pre-glacial  and 
others  post-glacial,  each  characterized  by  a  different  fauna ; 
but  the  most  recent  researches  justly  reject  the  idea  of  sud- 
den and  complete  changes  with  the  fauna  appearing  and  dis- 
appearing abruptly.  No  fauna  has  thus  appeared  and  disap- 
peared. Moreover,  Ameghino  calls  our  attention  to  great 
mammals,  such  as  the  smilodon,  the  Felis  longifrons,  the 
toxodon,  and  the  mastodon  in  successive  strata,  the  two 
last  named  even  occurring  in  comparatively  recent  times. 
The  hoplophorus,  the  megatherium,  and  the  mylodon,  es- 
pecially classed  by  Burmeister  among  pre-glacial  animals, 
occur  in  the  upper  strata  of  the  pampas.  On  the  other 
hand  the  species  quoted  as  characteristic  of  the  post-glacial 
epoch  are  met  with  in  every  stratum.  Without  prolonging 
the  discussion  we  will  add  that  the  formation  of  the  pampas 
certainly  took  a  long  time,  "largos  y  largos  siglos"  says 
Ameghino ;  that  they  are  the  result  of  many  and  varied 
causes,  and  that  all  those  which  we  have  just  enumerated, 
with  perhaps  others  also,  undoubtedly  contributed  to  their 
production.  If  it  is  difficult,  in  the  present  state  of  knowl- 
edge, to  assign  to  each  of  these  causes  its  exact  role,  it  is 
still  more  impossible  to  place  them  in  a  definite  epoch,  and 
the  difficulties  are  greatly  increased  by  the  fact  that  geologi- 
cal periods  are  not  synchronous  in  Europe  and  America,  and 
if  ever  they  are  assimilated  more  perfectly  than  now,  it  will 
only  be  after  long  and  patient  researches. 

We  must  not  omit  to  mention  a  skull  discovered  by  Dr. 
Moreno,  in  1874,  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Negro,  Patagonia, 
at  a  depth  of  thirteen  feet,  in  a  bed  of  gravel  and  yellow 
sand,  which  he  considers  '  to  be  of  a  contemporaneous  for- 
mation with  the  subsoil  of  the  pampas.  Although  there 
were  no  bones  with  this  skull  to  aid  in  the  exact  determi- 
nation of  its  age,  Moreno  thinks  it  very  ancient,  and  calls 
attention  to  its  remarkable  artificial  deformation,  resembling 
that  which  has  always  prevailed  amongst  the  Aymaras,  and 
is  also  met  with  among  tribes  more  than  six  hundred  leagues 

1  Bull.  Soc.  Anthr.,  1880,  p.  490. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODOX.  33 

from  them.  Broca  has  also  pointed  out  the  traces  left  on 
the  forehead  by  periostitis,  and  he  does  not  hesitate  to  at- 
tribute this  scar  to  a  syphilitic  disease.  This  is  a  very  in- 
teresting pathological  fact. 

Moreno  had  previously  collected  many  human  bones  in 
the  ancient  cemeteries  of  Patagonia.  That  they  are  very 
ancient  no  one  can  doubt,  but  to  fix  their  real  age  with  any 
certainty  is  very  difficult.  The  skeletons  were  generally 
seated,  with  the  face  turned  outward,  the  knees  drawn  up  to 
the  breast,  one  foot  resting  on  the  other,  and  the  hands 
crossed  on  the  shins.  This  is  much  the  same  position  as 
that  of  Peruvian  and  Aleutian  mummies.  With  the  skele- 
tons were  found  arrow-points  of  many  different  shapes  and 
of  many  kinds  of  stone,  little  flint  knives,  fragments  of  pot- 
tery ornamented  with  dots,  straight,  waving,  and  zig-zag 
lines;  bowls  of  sandstone,  diorite,  or  porphyry;  stone  mor- 
tars— one  of  them  fourteen  inches  in  diameter ;  shells  of 
different  kinds  ;  and,  lastly,  the  bones  of  the  guanaco  and 
ostrich  split  lengthwise.  Some  of  the  human  bones  were  dyed 
red.  As  some  Indians  were  still  in  the  habit  during  the  last 
century  of  painting  their  faces  red  before  starting  on  an  expe- 
dition, it  is  supposed  that  these  bones  belonged  to  warriors 
killed  in  battle.  It  is  useful  to  note  this  fact,  but  we  must 
add  that  the  funeral  rites  to  which  the  remains  bear  witness 
would  not  date  back  to  the  Quaternary  period,  nor  have 
been  practised  by  the  contemporaries  of  the  mylodon  or 
glyptodon. 

The  discoveries  in  North  America  would  be  no  less  curi- 
ous, if  we  could  but  accept  them  with  more  confidence. 
This  reservation  made,  we  must  mention  them,  if  only  to 
show  that  sometimes  even  masters  in  science  allow  them- 
seives  to  be  carried  away  by  their  imaginations,  and  even 
more  by  pre-conceived  ideas.  In  1848,  Count  F.  de  Pour- 
tales  found  some  human  jaws  with  the  teeth  still  in  them, 
and  part  of  the  bones  of  a  human  foot,  in  a  conglomerate 
made  up  of  fragments  of  coral  or  broken  shells  and  imbedded 
in  the  perpendicular  rocks  overhanging  Lake  Monroe, 


34  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Florida,  about  ten  miles  from  the  coast.  Agassiz '  informed 
the  scientific  world  of  the  fact,  and  considering  that  the  land 
here  gains  on  the  sea  at  the  rate  of  about  a  foot  in  a  cen- 
tury, he  allowed  for  the  coral-bank  an  age  of  13,300  years,  and 
for  the  bones  imbedded  in  it  10,000  years.  Lyell,"  Wilson,3 
and  with  them  many  other  scientific  men,  had  accepted  the 
fact  of  the  discovery,  with  the  consequences  resulting  from 
it,  when  a  letter  from  the  Count  de  Pourtales  put  an  end  to 
a  controversy  which  had  extended  over  many  years,  by  as- 
serting that  the  human  bones  were  found  not  in  the  coral 
conglomerate,  but  in  a  fresh-water  calcareous  deposit  dis- 
tinctly characterized  by  mollusks 4  such  as  still  live  in  the 
lake. 

In  the  loess  of  the  Mississippi  at  Natchez,  Dr.  Dickson 
found,  side  by  side  with  the  bones  of  the  mylodon  and 
megalonyx,  a  human  pelvis/  blackened  like  them  by  time, 
and  still  more  by  the  peat  in  which  they  were  all  lying. 
This  time,  Sir  Charles  Lyell  showed  more  reserve ;  he  ob- 
served that  the  human  bone  might  have  come  from  the  very 
numerous  Indian  burial-places  in  the-  neighborhood,  and 
have  been  carried  along  by  water.8  Sir  J.  Lubbock  did  not 
express  his  opinions,  but  he  extended  a  certain  amount  of 
credit  to  the  opinion  of  Usher,  who  regarded  the  bones  in 
question  as  fossil.7  We  must  also  mention  that  Dr.  Leidy 
adopted  the  wiser  course,  and  refrained  until  the  recep- 
tion of  more  complete  evidence  from  coming  to  any  conclu- 
sions as  to  the  contemporaneity  of  man  with  the  mammals 
amongst  the  remains  of  which  his  bones  were  mixed. 

1Agassiz'  Lecture. — Mobile  Daily    Tribune,    April    14,    1855.       Nott  and 
Gliddon,   "  Types  of  Mankind,"  p.  352. 
a  "Antiquity  of  Man,"  p.  44. 
8  "  Pre-historic  Man,"  p.  12. 

4  He  met  especially  with    Ampullaria    and    Paludina. — Am.    Naturalist, 
vol.  II.,  p.  443,  Oct.,    1868. 

5  Os  innominatum.  Nott  and  Gliddon,   "  Types  of  Mankind,"  p.  349. 

°"  Second  Visit  to  America  in  1846,"  vol.  II.,  p.  197  ;  "  Antiquity  of  Man," 
Chap.  X. 

7  "  Pre-historic  Man."  Southall,  "Recent  Origin  of  Man,"  p.  551, 
Short,  "  North  Americans  of  Antiquity,"  p.  114. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  35 

The  plains  stretching  from  New  Orleans  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  are  low  and  wet.  In  crossing  them  it  is  difficult  to 
distinguish  between  dry  land  and  the  marshes  covered  with 
water-plants.  These  wild  solitudes,  shut  in  by  a  barren  hori- 
zon, are  the  haunt  of  fevers,  and  tenanted  by  reptiles  and  in- 
sects of  all  kinds.  The  energy  of  man  has  succeeded  in 
conquering  the  resistance  of  nature,  and  one  of  the  chief 
cities  of  the  South  rises  from  alluvial  deposits  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, which  attain  at  certain  points  a  height  of  five  hundred 
feet.  Trenches,  dug  some  years  ago  for  laying  down  gas- 
pipes,  laid  bare  several  successive  strata  of  ancient  forest, 
in  which  geologists  have  made  out  ten  generations  of  trees 
which  have  been  buried  for  some  centuries.1  In  a  bed  be- 
longing to  the  fourth  forest,  at  a  depth  of  sixteen  feet, 
amongst  the  trunks  of  trees  and  fragments  of  burnt  wood, 
lay  a  skeleton.  The  skull  was  beneath  a  gigantic  cypress, 
which  lived  many  years  after  the  owner  of  the  head,  and  had 
in  its  turn  succumbed.2  In  estimating  the  time  required  for 
the  growth  of  the  trees  with  the  duration  of  the  various 
forest  deposits,  Bennet  Dowler  asserts  the  age  of  the  human 
remains  at  57,000  years.  This  is  too  hypothetical  a  calcula- 
tion to  be  worth  discussion.  Dr.  Dowler  seems  to  have  felt 
this  himself,  for  in  a  later  calculation  he  gives  the  skeleton 
an  antiquity  of  14,400 3  years  !  Like  the  first  quoted,  these 
figures  rest  on  no  solid  foundation,  if,  as  Dr.  Foster4  very 
reasonably  suggests,  the  so-called  forests  successively  laid 
low,  were  but  trees  carried  down  by  the  river  in  its  frequent 

1  "  Picture  of  New  Orleans,"  1852  ;  Nott  and  Gliddon,  "  Types  of  Mankind," 
p.  338  ;  Lyell,  "Antiquity  of  Man,"  pp.  44  and  200  ;  Huxley,  "  Man's  Place 
in  Nature,"  Note  by  Dr.  Daly  ;  Lubbock,  "  L'  Homme  Preh.,  p.  261  ; 
Southall,  "Recent  Origin  of  Man,"  pp.  470  and  551. 

4  The  cypress  ( Taxodium  distichtttri)  lives  to  a  great  age.  Adanson 
mentions  one,  which  he  believes  to  have  lived  5,200  years,  and  Humboldt 
speaks  of  another  at  Chapultepec,  already  old  in  the  time  of  Montezuma,  which 
he  thinks  has  lived  at  least  6,000  years,  but  these  estimates  must  be  taken  as 
subject  to  immense  reduction. 

8  We  give  these  estimates  as  quoted  in  a  recent  book.  (Short's  "American 
Indians,"  p.  123.) 

4  "  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States  of  America,"  p.  76. 


36  PKE-rtTSTOKIC  AMERICA. 

inundations,  and  deposited  with  alluvial  loam  where  the 
Mississippi  empties  its  waters  into  the  sea.  The  same  con- 
clusion is  arrived  at,  if  we  accept  Dr.  Hilgard's  opinion,  who 
looks  upon  the  bed  in  which  the  skeleton  lay,  as  a  recent 
alluvial  deposit. 

In  a  salt  mine  on  the  island  of  Petit  Anse,  Louisiana,  was 
found  a  mat  made  of  interlaced  reeds.1  The  salt  occurs  at  a 
depth  of  fifteen  to  twenty  feet,  and  the  fragment  of  mat  was 
found  at  the  level  of  the  first  deposit  of  salt.  Two  feet 
above  lay  some  fragments  of  the  tusks  or  bones  of  an  ele- 
phant. Man  and  the  proboscidian  had  lived  at  the  same 
time  and  met  death  at  the  same  place. 

In  the  bottom  land  of  the  Bourbeuse  River,  Gasconade 
County,  Missouri,  Dr.  Koch  discovered  the  remains  of  a  mas- 
todon.2 This  animal,  one  of  the  largest  known,  had  sunk  in 
the  mud  of  the  marshes ;  borne  down  by  its  own  weight,  it 
had  been  unable  to  regain  its  footing,  and  had  fallen  on  its 
right  side.  Some  men  had  seen  it  in  this  position,  and  had 
at  first  attacked  it  from  a  distance,  throwing  at  it  arrows, 
stones,  and  pieces  of  rock,  of  which  a  great  number  are  mixed 
with  its  bones ;  then,  to  get  the  better  of  it  the  more  easily, 
they  had  succeeded  in  lighting  fires  round  it,  to  which  the 
heaps  of  cinders,  some  of  them  as  much  as  six  feet  high,  still 
bear  witness.  The  arrows,  lance-points,  and  knives  were 
certainly  the  work  of  man,  and  the  pieces  of  rock,  some  of 
them  weighing  no  less  than  twenty-five  pounds,  had  been 
brought  from  a  distance.  Every  thing  seems  to  prove  the 
exact  truth  of  the  scene  described  by  Koch.  The  following 

lArunJinaria  macrosperma.  This  mat  is  now  in  the  National  Museum  at 
Washington. 

3  Koch  announced  his  discovery  in  many  pamphlets  of  little  scientific  value. 
Dana  has  preserved  the  titles  of  a  great  many  ;  among  them,  see  Koch's 
"Evidence  on  the  Contemporaneity  of  Man  and  the  Mastodon  in  Missouri." 
American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  May,  1875.  Consult  also  Foster 
("Preh.  Races,"  p.  62)  ;  Rau,  ("  North  Am.  Stone  Implements",  Smith  Cont., 
1872,)  who  admits  the  authenticity  of  Koch's  discovery,  and  Short  ("North 
Americans")  who  denies  it.  Schoolcraft,  (Vol,  I.,  p.  174)  says  of  the  bones  of 
the  mastodon  discovered  near  the  Potato  River,  that  they  were  not  petrified, 
which  throws  a  doubt  on  their  great  antiquity. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  37 

year  he  made  a  somewhat  similar  discovery  in  Benton 
County,  Missouri.  At  about  ten  miles  from  the  junction  of 
the  Potato  River  with  the  Osage,  he  found,  under  the  thigh- 
bone of  a  mastodon,  an  arrow  of  pink  quartz,  and  a  little 
farther  off,  also  in  the  direction  of  the  animal,  four  other 
arrows,1  which  to  all  appearance  had  been  shot  at  him." 

These  observations  are  very  likely  correct ;  but  unfortu- 
nately Koch's  want  of  scientific  knowledge  3  and  the  exaggera- 
tions with  which  he  accompanied  his  story,  at  first  threw 
some  discredit  upon  the  facts  themselves.  But  the  recent 
discoveries  of  Dr.  Aughey  in  Iowa  and  Nebraska  have  now 
confirmed  them.  There,  too,  the  bones  of  the  mastodon 
have  been  found  mixed  with  numerous  stone  weapons ;  and 
man,  we  learn  to  our  surprise,  armed  with  these  feeble 
weapons,  not  only  did  not  fear  to  attack  the  gigantic  animal, 
but  succeeded  in  vanquishing  it. 

In  the  Sierra  Nevada  region,  at  various  localities  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  numerous  traces  of  the  presence  of  man  are 
met  with.  The  discovery  of  implements  or  weapons  at  a 
depth  of  several  hundred  feet,  in  diversely  stratified  beds 
showing  no  trace  of  displacement,  simply  implies  that  the 
country  was  peopled  many  centuries  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Spaniards,  and  that  the  inhabitants  were  witnesses  of  the 
convulsions  of  nature,  of  the  volcanic  phenomena,  which 
brought  about  such  remarkable  changes.  But  when  the 
bones  of  man  and  the  results  of  his  very  primitive  industry 
are  associated  with  the  remains  of  animals  which  have  been 
extinct  for  a  period  of  time  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  estimate 
the  length,  it  is  impossible  not  to  date  the  existence  of  that 
man  from  the  most  remote  antiquity.4 

These  facts  are  confirmed  in  California,  Colorado  (fig.  13), 

1  Three  of  these  arrows  were  of  agate  and  one  of  bluish-colored  silex. 

*  "  Trans,  of  the  Saint  Louis  Academy  of  Sciences,"  1857. 

"  Koch  was  chiefly  great  as  a  skilful  and  persevering  collector.  The  Ameri- 
can and  European  museums  abound  in  specimens  collected  by  him.  He  was 
the  discoverer,  among  other  things,  of  the  magnificent  mastodon  of  the  British 
Museum. 

4  Bancroft,  vol.  IV.,  p.  697. 


FIG.  13.— Canon  of  the  Colorado  River. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  39 

Wyoming,  wherever  a  search  has  been  possible.  In  a  manu- 
script which  we  believe  to  be  still  unpublished,  Voy1  de- 
scribes numerous  and  interesting  discoveries,  all  carefully 
verified.  We  will  mention  two  stone  mortars  found  in  some 
auriferous  gravel  near  Table  Mountain,  one  in  1858^  at  a 
depth  of  three  hundred  feet,  the  other  in  1862,  forty  feet 
lower  down,  under  a  bed  of  lava  four  hundred  feet  thick ; 
and  at  St.  Andrews,  several  similar  mortars,  such  as  abound 
all  over  California.  We  confine  ourselves  to  the  following 
rather  dry  enumeration  ;  Dr.  Snell  speaks  of  a  pendant  of 
siliceous  schist  and  several  lance-points.  From  Shaw's  Flat 
there  are  ornaments  of  calc-spar  and  a  granite  mortar ;  near 
Sonora  and  at  Kincaid's  Flat,  stone  implements ;  at  Gold 
Spring  gulch,  an  oval  granite  dish  more  than  eighteen  inches 
in  diameter,  two  to  three  inches  thick,  and  weighing  forty 
pounds;  at  Georgetown  several  very  similar  dishes.  Every- 
where these  flints,  mortars,  and  dishes  were  associated  with 
the  bones  of  the  mastodon,  of  the  elephant,  of  a  large  tapir, 
and  of  other  extinct  animals.  It  has  been  the  fashion  to 
attribute  these  objects,  evidently  the  work  of  man,  to  a  sav- 
age and  cannibal  race,  extinct  with  the  animals  amongst 
which  it  lived,  and  having  nothing  in  common  with  the 
Indians  of  the  present  day.8 

Traces  of  ancient  mining  operations  are  also  met  with  in 
several  places  in  North  America ;  but  all  we  know  about  them 
is  that  they  are  of  much  earlier  date  than  the  Spanish  con- 
quest. Mention  is  made  of  ancient  mines  of  cinnabar  exist- 
ing in  California,8  where  the  rocks  have  given  way,  burying 
in  their  fall  the  miners,  whose  skeletons  lay  at  the  bottom  of 
the  mine  beside  clumsy  stone  hammers,  the  only  tools  of 
these  savage  workmen.  Similar  hammers  have  been  found 
in  the  Lake  Superior  mines.4  We  shall  recur  to  this  subject ; 

1 "  Relics  of  the  Stone  Age  in  California." 

"Bancroft,  vol.  III.,  p.  549.  He  quotes  an  unpublished  manuscript  of 
Powers.  In  appendix  A,  we  give  the  chief  discoveries  and  the  fauna  associated 
with  them. 

'Bancroft,  vol.  IV.,  p.  696.  The  Spaniards  gave  the  name  of  Almaden  to 
these  mines  in  memory  of  those  of  their  country. 

*"  Report  of  the  Am.  Assoc.  for  the  Adv.  of  Science.  "Cambridge,  Mass.,i84g. 


4°  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

but  we  may  add  now  that  the  workmanship  of  these  objects 
is  similar  to  that  of  the  Indians,  and  need  not  be  attributed 
to  a  different  race. 

Berthoud  tells  us  that  in  the  Tertiary  gravels  at  Cow's 
Creek,  and  near  the  South  Platte  River,  he  found  some  stone 
implements,  together  with  which  he  picked  up  some  shells 
that  he  assigns  to  the  most  ancient  beds  of  the  Pliocene  de- 
posits, perhaps  even  to  those  of  the  Miocene  period.  These 
are,  it  must  be  admitted,  but  feeble  proofs  of  a  fact  of  such 
capital  importance  as  the  existence  of  man  in  tertiary  times.1 


FIG.  14. — The  Calaveras  skull,  after  Whitney. 

The  discovery  we  have  still  to  mention  has  been  discussed 
in  all  the  learned  societies  of  America  and  Europe  ;  and  al- 
though a  satisfactory  solution  of  it  has  not  yet  been  arrived 
at,  it  will  be  well  to  give  such  details  as  are  possible.  In 
1857,  a  fragment  of  a  human  skull  was  found,  associated 
with  the  bones  of  the  mastodon,  in  the  auriferous  gravel  of 
Table  Mountain,  California,  at  a  depth  of  180  feet.  Dr.  C. 
F.  Winslow  sent  this  fragment  to  the  Natural  History  So- 
ciety of  Boston,"  where  it  attracted  little  attention,  because 

'Berthoud  says  he   found    these  objects  in  40°  N.  Lat.,  and  104°  W.  Long. 
Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  1872. 
8  Whitney,  "Auriferous  Gravels  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,"  p.  264, 


MAN  AND   THE  MASTODON.  4! 

there  was  no  evidence  concerning  the  age  of  deposit.  A 
fragment  from  the  same  skull  was  also  given  by  Dr.  Winslow 
to  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences. 

A  few  years  later,  i.  e.,  in  1866,  Professor  J.  D.  Whitney, 
Director  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  California,  announced 
the  discovery  of  a  skull,  this  time  nearly  complete  (fig.  14), 
at  a  depth  of  about  a  hundred  and  thirty  feet,  in  a  bed  of 
auriferous  gravel  on  the  western  slope  of  the  Sierra  Nevada 
(Calaveras  County).  The  deposit  rested  on  a  bed  of  lava 
and  was  covered  with  several  layers,  some  of  lava,  some  of 
volcanic  deposits,  overlying  beds  of  gravel.1  This  succession 
of  strata  indicates  long  periods  of  agitation,  during  which  in- 
undations alternated  with  eruptions.  If  the  facts  reported 
be  correct,  the  waters  have  more  than  once  invaded  the  dis- 
tricts inhabited  by  man,  and  burning  lava  from  volcanoes 
has  dried  up  the  rivers  at  their  sources. 

The  skull  was  imbedded  in  consolidated  gravel,  in  which 
were  several  other  fragments  of  human  bones,  the  remains  of 
some*  small  mammals  which  it  was  impossible  to  class,  and  a 
shell  of  a  land  snail  (Helix  mormonuni).  Beside  them  lay 
some  completely  fossilized  wood.  We  must  add  that  the 
shaft  of  the  mine,  from  which  the  skull  was  taken,  has  since 
become  filled  with  water,  and  any  further  examination  has 
become  impracticable  on  account  of  the  expense  involved  in 
pumping  it  out. 

Though  the  Calaveras  skull  was  associated  with  no  mam- 
mal bones,  with  the  aid  of  which  its  age  might  be  fixed,  it 
is  a  fact  that,  in  other  parts  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  gravels  of 
an  identical  kind  have  yielded  the  bones  of  extinct  animals. 
There  are  deposits  in  California  and  Oregon  where,  to  use  a 

'We  give  a  list,  from  the  "  Materiaux  pour  1'Histoire  Primitive  et  Naturelle 
de  rHomme,"  of  the  series  of  deposits  from  above  downward. 

1  black  lava         40  ft.  6  gravels  25  ft. 

2  gravels  3  "  7  brown  lava         9  " 

3  white  lava        30  "  8  gravels  5   " 

4  gravels  5  "  9  red  lava  4  " 

5  white  lava         15  "  10  red  gravels       17  " 

According  to  the  proprietor  of  the  mine,  it  is  in  bed  No.  8  that  the  skull  under 
notice  was  found. 


42  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

popular  expression,  the  remains  of  elephants  and  mastodons 
might  be  had  by  the  wagon-load.  Beside  gigantic  pachyder- 
mata  we  meet  with  the  Palaeolama,  the  Elotherium,1  extinct 
oxen,  Hipparion,  and  several  kinds  of  horses.  The  fossil 
flora,  impressions  of  which  are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the 
argillaceous  deposits,  also  presents  notable  differences  from 
that  of  to-day.?  It  contains  elms,  figs,  alders,  and  other 
trees  of  Europe ;  but  we  notice  particularly  the  complete 
absence  of  coniferous  trees,  which  now  give  to  the  flora  of 
California  its  distinctive  character.  Whitney  also  calls  at- 
tention, in  support  of  his  theory,  to  such  implements  as 
lance-points,  stone  hatchets,  mortars,  doubtless  used  for 
grinding  grain  or  kernels,  all  bearing  witness  to  the  presence 
of  man,  and  which  have  been  found  in  many  places  buried 
beneath  beds  of  lava.  The  following  are  the  terms  in  which 
he  announces  his  discovery  to  M.  Desor :  "  My  chief  in- 
terest now  centres  in  the  human  remains,  and  in  the  works 
from  the  hand  of  man  that  have  been  found  in  the  Tertiary 
strata  of  California,  the  existence  of  which  I  have  been  able 
to  verify  during  the  last  few  months.  Evidence  has  now 
accumulated  to  such  an  extent  that  I  feel  no  hesitation  in 
saying  that  we  have  unequivocal  proofs  of  the  existence  of 
man  on  the  Pacific  coasts  prior  to  the  glacial  period,  prior  to 
the  period  of  the  mastodon  and  the  elephant,  at  a  time  when 
animal  and  vegetable  life  were  entirely  different  from  what 
they  are  now,  and  since  which  a  vertical  erosion  of  from  two 
to  three  thousand  feet  of  hard  rock  strata  has  taken  place." 
The  scientific  world  awaited  with  natural  impatience  the 
confirmation  of  these  discoveries.  Desor  constituted  himself 
the  spokesman  of  his  colleagues,  and  in  1872  Whitney  replied 
to  him  3 :  "  You  may  rely  upon  my  publishing  this  fact,  with  all 
its  details,  as  soon  as  the  necessary  maps  are  engraved,  and  I 

1  According  to  Pictet,  belonging  to  the  Pachydermata  and  the  family  of 
Suidse.  In  appendix  A.  we  give  the  list  of  the  fauna  drawn  up  by  Whitney,  in 
his  "  Auriferous  Gravels." 

a  Lesquereux  made  out  in  the  flora  of  the  mining  districts  forms  belonging  to 
the  Pliocene  period,  and  even  approaching  those  of  the  Miocene. 

* ReviM  d1  Anthrop.,  1872,  p.  760. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  43 

have  completely  finished  my  survey  of  the  geology  of  the 
region.  It  will  then  be  seen  that  there  has  been  no  mis- 
take. The  mere  publication  of  the  fact  that  human  remains 
and  products  of  human  industry  have  been  found  beneath 
the  volcanic  emissions  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  would  prove 
nothing,  if  the  geological  structure  of  the  region  had  not  at 
the  same  time  been  determined  with  sufficient  precision  for 
every  one  to  be  able  to  appreciate,  from  a  scientific  point  of 
view,  the  significance  of  this  discovery.  Rest  assured  that 
the  Calaveras  County  skull  is  not  an  isolated  fact,  but  that  I 
have  a  whole  series  of  well  authenticated  cases  of  the  find- 
ing, in  the  same  geological  position,  of  either  human  remains 
or  objects  of  human  workmanship."  To  make  these  state- 
ments complete,  a  geologist  of  Philadelphia  at  the  same  time 
informed  the  Abb£  Bourgeois  that  Whitney  had  collected, 
in  the  Pliocene  strata  of  California,  in  nine  different  places, 
human  bones  or  relics  of  human  industry,  and  that  these 
facts  were  destined  to  remove  all  uncertainty.1 

For  the  next  eight  years  Whitney  published  no  details  of 
his  discoveries,  and  the  newspapers  reported,  without  his 
taking  the  trouble  to  contradict  it,  the  assertion  that  he  had 
been  the  victim  of  an  unfortunate  hoax. 

Subsequently  he  referred  to  the  subject  in  a  lecture  at 
Harvard  University,  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  and 
since  then  has  fully  discussed  the  subject  in  the  works  to 
which  his  name  gives  a  legitimate  importance.  He  main- 
tains the  authenticity  of  his  discovery,  as  attested  by  the 
researches  he  has  made  in  person,  while  admitting  that  the 
finders  of  the  skull  were  but  ignorant  laborers,  and  that  no 
competent  person  saw  it  in  its  original  position.' 

No  proof  is  afforded  by  the  characteristics  of  the  skull.  It 
resembles  the  Eskimo  type,  and  the  very  prominent  supra- 
orbital  ridges  form  its  most  distinguishing  feature.  Chemi- 

'  "  Materiaux  pour  1'  Histoire  Primitive  et  Naturelle  de  1"  Homme,"  1873, 

'p.  55- 

"Whitney:  "Lecture  in  Cambridge,"  April  25,  1878.  "The  Calaveras 
Skull :  Memoirs  of  the  Museum  of  Comparative  Zo6logy  of  Harvard  College," 
vol.  VI. 


44  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

cal  analysis  gives  no  decided  verdict.  It  shows  that  the 
skull  contains  a  slight  trace  of  organic  matter,1  and  that 
phosphate  of  lime  is  partly  replaced  by  carbonate. 

We  note  these  two  facts,  which  seem  to  us  important. 
It  seems  unlikely  that  traces  of  organic  matter,  however 
slight  they  may  be,  could  have  been  preserved  throughout 
the  vast  periods  of  time  separating  our  own  from  the  Ter- 
tiary period.  No  less  unexpected  would  be  the  resemblance 
of -a  skull  of  that  age  to  the  skulls  of  the  Eskimo  of  to-day, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  admit  the  perpetuation  of  a  type  with- 
out appreciable  modifications  during  the  incalculable  ages  in 
which  all  nature  has  undergone  so  complete  a  transforma- 
tion.4 

The  conclusions  to  be  arrived  at  seem  to  us  simple. 
Without  doubt  man  lived  in  California,  and  Whitney's  nar- 
rative is  one  more  proof  added  to  those  already  quoted, 
during  the  time  when  the  volcanoes  of  the  Sierra  Nevada 
were  in  full  action,  before  the  great  extension  of  the  glaciers, 
before  the  formation  of  the  valleys  and  the  deep  ravines,  at 
a  period  when  the  flora  and  the  fauna  were  totally  different 
from  those  of  to-day.  But  Whitney  himself  admits  that  if 
the  eruption  of  the  great  mass  of  volcanic  matter  began 
toward  the  Pliocene  period,  it  certainly  lasted  throughout 
the  whole  of  the  post-Pliocene  period,  and  even  during 
recent  times.  All  initial  or  final  dates  are  therefore  want- 
'  ing,  and  even  if  it  were  possible  to  determine  them  it  would 
be  impossible  to  assert  positively  that  there  had  been  no 
displacement  at  any  given  point,  when  the  ground  had  been 
rent  asunder  by  such  terrible  convulsions  as  volcanic  erup- 
tions. Even  those  who  admit  the  authenticity  of  the  Cala- 
veras  skull  should  reserve  their  opinion  as  to  the  period 
from  which  it  dates,  till  the  question  has  been  more  fully 

1  "  The  skull  being  as  nearly  deprived  of  its  organic  matter  as  fossil  bones  of 
the  Tertiary  period  usually  are."  Whitney,  p.  271  ;  on  page  269  is  given  the 
analysis. 

a  It  seems  certain,  for  instance,  that  at  the  period  to  which  Whitney  refers 
this  skull,  the  climate  of  California  was  tropical. — "  Proceedings  of  California, 
Acad.  of  Sciences,"  1875,  p.  389. 


MAN  AND    THE  MASTODON.  45 

studied  from  a  scientific  point  of  view,  apart  from  the  fierce 
controversies  that  these  questions  too  often  provoke.  In 
1877  Prof-  March  said  at  Nashville  ("Am.  Ass.  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science  ")  :  "  The  evidence  as  it  stands  to-day, 
although  not  conclusive,  seems  to  place  the  appearance  of 
man  in  this  country  in  the  Pliocene  ;  and  the  best  proof  of 
this  has  been  found  on  the  Pacific  coast." ' 

If,  however,  we  hesitate  as  yet  to  admit  the  existence  of 
man  on  the  American  continent  in  the  Tertiary  period,  it  is 
difficult  to  deny  that  long  centuries  have  rolled  by  since  the 
time  when  these  unknown  men  lived  amongst  animals  as 
little  known  as  themselves.  This  is,  in  the  present  state  of 
pre-historic  science,  the  only  decision  possible.  Other  parts 
of  this  work  will  introduce  the  reader  to  other  races  with 
different  tastes,  different  manners,  and  probably  a  different 
origin.  History  and  tradition  are  silent  about  them,  as 
about  their  predecessors,  and  long  and  patient  researches 
are  necessary  to  separate  the  few  still  obscure  facts  from  the 
profound  darkness  enveloping  them.  May  the  difficulties 
of  the  task  be  our  excuse,  if  inevitable  errors  creep  into  our 
narrative. 

1  No  reasonable  person  who  has  impartially  reviewed  the  evidence  brought 
together  by  Whitney,  and  who  saw,  as  we  did,  the  Calaveras  skull  in  its  original 
condition,  can  doubt  that  it  was  found,  as  alleged  by  the  discoverers,  in  the 
auriferous  gravels  below  the  lava.  The  only  question  to  which  some  uncer- 
tainty still  attaches  itself  among  geologists  is  that  of  the  true  age  of  these 
gravels  in  geological  time  ;  and  whether  all  the  extinct  species  of  which  re- 
mains are  found  in  them  were  contemporaneous  with  the  deposition  of  the 
gravels,  and  with  the  then  undoubted  presence  of  man. — [Am.  Editor.] 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND  THE  CAVES. 

AT  the  close  of  the  last  chapter  we  said  that  other  men 
with  different  manners  and  tastes,  perhaps  also  of  different 
origin,  replaced  the  first  inhabitants  of  America.  A  con- 
siderable change  took  place,  and  we  have  not  now  to  deal 
with  nomad  savages,  wandering  without  shelter  in  the  for- 
ests of  the  North  and  the  pampas  of  the  South ;  we  are  to 
make  acquaintance  with  a  numerous  population  living  in  so- 
cial intercourse,  and  dwelling  for  long  periods  in  a  single  lo- 
cality. The  great  difference  in  the  fauna  helps  us  to  realize 
the  importance  of  the  change  that  had  come  about,  and  also 
the  immense  length  of  time  necessary  to  its  accomplishment. 
Though  these  men,  who  doubtless  arrived  in  successive  mi- 
grations, were  still  rude  and  barbarous,  the  permanence  of 
their  homes  was  already  a  great  step  in  advance,  and  atten- 
tive study  enables  us  to  discover  the  germs  of  a  more  ad- 
vanced civilization,  which  would  develop  still  more  rapidly 
among  those  who  should  succeed  them. 

Every  thing  is  of  importance  in  treating  of  the  existence 
of  man  in  those  times,  which  but  yesterday  were  totally  un- 
known. From  this  point  of  view  the  kitchen-middens  (literally 
kitchen-heaps),  as  the  heaps  of  rubbish  and  offal  of  all  kinds 
which  accumulate  about  the  dwellings  of  man  have  come  to 
be  called,  deserve  special  attention.1  Excavations  in  them 
in  the  different  countries  of  Europe  have  yielded  the  most 
interesting  results.  They  have  revealed  the  every-day  life, 

1  These  heaps  of  rubbish  in  America  are  so  generally  composed  almost  en- 
tirely of  marine  or  fresh-water  shells,  that  the  term  shell-heap,  as  applied  to  them, 
has  here  largely  replaced  the  more  cumbrous  term  derived  from  the  Danish. 

46 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CA  VES,  47 

the  food,  the  manners,  the  journeys,  and  the  migrations  of 
pre-historic  men  ;  their  progress  can  be  followed  and  their 
gradual  improvement  noted.  The  excavators  have  collected 
hatchets,  knives,  implements  of  all  kinds,  in  stone,  in  horn, 
and  in  bone  ;  fragments  of  pottery,  and  of  charred  wood. 
Amongst  the  cinders  of  these  hearths,  abandoned  for  cen- 
turies, have  been  found  numerous  bones  of  animals  and 
birds,  fish  bones,  shells  of  oysters,  cockles,  and  other  mol- 
lusks,  all  telling  of  the  prolonged  residence  of  man.  No  less 
numerous  are  the  kitchen-middens  or  shell-heaps  in  America, 
and  wherever  excavations  have  been  made  they  have  been 
most  fruitful  in  results.1  Immense  heaps  of  shells,  the  grad- 
ual accumulations  of  man,  stretch  along  the  coasts  of  New- 
foundland, Nova  Scotia,  Massachusetts,  Louisiana,  and 
Nicaragua,  where  deposits  are  described  dating  from  the 
most  remote  antiquity.  They  are  met  with  again  in  the 
Guianas,  Brazil,  and  Patagonia  ;  near  the  mouths  of  the  Ori- 
noco ;  on  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  ;  on  the  coasts  of 
the  Pacific,  as  well  as  on  those  of  the  Atlantic  ;  and  the 
shell-mounds  of  Tierra  del  Fuegoand  of  Alaska  can  be  made 
out  from  afar  by  the  navigator,  on  account  of  their  green 
color,  the  herbage  being  darker  and  more  luxuriant  than 
that  of  the  adjacent  surface. 

Some  of  these  shell-heaps  are  of  considerable  dimensions. 
Sir  Charles  Lyell  describes  one  on  St.  Simon's  Island  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Altamaha  River  in  Georgia,  which  covers  ten 
acres  of  ground,  to  a  depth  varying  from  five  to  ten  feet. 
It  is  formed  almost  entirely  of  oyster-shells,  and  excavations 
have  yielded  hatchets,  stone  arrow-heads,  and  some  frag- 
ments of  pottery.2  Another  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John's 

1  The  report  of  the  Pre-historic  Congress  held  at  Bologna,  ia  1871,  gives  a 
fairly  complete  list  of  the  authors  who  have  written  about  the  American  shell- 
heaps.  See  also  "  Reports  of  the  Peabody  Museum  of  Archaeology,  Cambridge, 
Mass.,"  vol.  II.  ;  and  of  the  "  Am.  Association  for  the  Adv.  of  Science,"  Chi- 
cago, 1867  ;  Detroit,  1875  ;  and  Wyman's  articles  in  the  American  Naturalist, 
1868. 

1  "  Second  Visit  to  the  United  States,"  vol.  I.,  p.  152. — "  British  Ass.  Rep. 
for  1859."  Address  of  the  President. 


48  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

River,  consisting,  like  that  visited  by  Lyell,  of  oyster-shells 
of  extraordinary  size,  is  three  hundred  feet  in  length,  with  a 
width  not  exactly  determined,  but  which  is  certainly  several 
hundred  feet.  The  shell-heaps  of  Florida  and  Alabama  are 
yet  more  considerable.  There  is  one  on  Amelia  Island  of  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  in  extent,  with  a  depth  of  about  three  and  a 
width  of  nearly  five  hundred  feet.  That  of  Bear  Point  cov- 
ers sixty  acres  of  ground  ;  that  of  Anercerty  Point,  one  hun- 
dred ;  and  that  of  Santa  Rosa,  one  hundred  and  fifty.  Oth- 
ers are  of  a  considerable  height :  Turtle  mound,  near  Smyr- 
na, is  a  mass  of  shells  attaining  a  height  of  thirty  feet, 
and  many  others  are  more  than  forty  feet  high.1  In  all  these 
shell-heaps  quantities  of  shells  have  been  collected,  although 
much  of  the  ground  they  occupy  has  not  yet  been  examined; 
large  trees,  roots,  tropical  creepers,  and  other  climbing  plants 
covering  them  with  often  impenetrable  thickets. 

All  the  shell-mounds  just  enumerated  are  situated  on  the 
shores  of  the  sea,  or  in  its  immediate  vicinity.  One,  how- 
ever, is  mentioned  fifty  miles  beyond  Mobile,  consisting  almost 
entirely  of  marine  shells.  This  fact  implies  a  considerable 
alteration  in  the  elevation  of  the  shores  since  the  time  of 
pre-historic  men  ;  for  it  is  not  very  likely  that  he  would  have 
taken  the  trouble  to  carry  the  shell-fish  necessary  for  his 
daily  food  to  such  a  distance,  when  it  would  have  been  so 
easy  to  set  up  his  dwelling-place  close  to  the  beach. 

Dr.  Jones  has  explored  forty  shell-heaps  on  Colonel 
Island,  Georgia.2  The  whole  island,  he  tells  us,  is  covered 
with  shell-mounds.  Similar  heaps,  chiefly  formed  of  the 
shells  of  oysters,  clams,  and  mussels,  are  of  very  frequent 
occurrence  in  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  and  excavations 
have  yielded  results  no  less  interesting.  Dr.  Jeffries  Wy- 
man  has  noted  the  rarity  of  stone  implements,  which  are 
replaced  by  articles  of  bone,  which  are  very  common. 
Fragments  of  pottery  are  not  abundant;  the  ornamenta- 
tion, always  coarse,  presents  little  resemblance  to  the  most 

1  Brinton  :  "  Notes  on  the  Floridian  Peninsula."     Philadelphia,  1859. 
8  "Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians  and  Georgia  Tribes." 


KITCHEN.MIDDENS  AND   CA  VES. 


49 


ancient  European  pottery.  The  ornamentation  was  pro 
duced  by  traceries  made  on  the  soft  clay  either  with  the  point 
of  a  shell,  or  of  a  sharp  stone.1  The  bones  of  animals  are 
numerous.8  Wyman  met  with  those  of  the  elk,  the  rein- 
deer,1 the  Virginian  deer  (Cervus  Virginianus),  the  most 
common  of  all ;  the  beaver,  the  seal,  the  mud-turtle,  the 
great  auk,  and  the  wild  turkey.  Except  the  auk  (Alca  im- 
pennis),  which  was  before  its  extinction  only  found  in  the 
extreme  north,  all  these  animals  lived  in  Maine  in  historic 
times.  The  caribou,  though  much  rarer  than  of  old,  is  still 
met  with  in  the  same  region.  The  dog  should  also  be  men- 


FlG.  15. — Various  stone  and  bone  implements  from  California. 

tioned.  Many  bones  bear  marks  of  his  teeth  ;  so  that  he 
lived  with  man  and  was  subject  to  him,  at  least  as  much  so 
as  his  wild  nature  permitted.  Some  of  these  important 

1  This  primitive  mode  of  ornamentation  has  been  met  with  in  Missouri,  Illi- 
nois, Ohio,  Tennessee,  and  Florida.     "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1872. 

*  In  appendix  B.  we  give  a  complete  list  of  the  mammals,  birds,  reptiles,  fish, 
and  mollusca  found  by  Jeffries  Wyman  in  the  shell-heaps  of  Mount  Desert  and 
Couch's  Cove,  Eagle  Hill  and*Cotuit  Port. 

*  The  reindeer  or  caribou  (Rangifer  caribou)  is  still  found  within  the  con- 
fines of  Maine  ;  but  the  wild  turkey  has  become  virtually  extinct  in  New  Eng- 
land.    The  elk  is  not  found  nearer  than  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  and  the 
great  auk  has  retreated  beyond  the  confines  of  the  United  States,  if  not  extinct. 
— Wyman,  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1868,  p.  n. 


SO  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

excavations  were  made  under  the  supervision  of  American 
anthropologists,  after  the  meeting  in  1868,  at  Chicago,  of  the 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  A  mound 
opened  on  that  occasion,  covered  an  area  of  ten  acres.  Oyster- 
shells,  cod  bones,  some  of  the  bones  of  a  dog,  and  those  of  a 
large  deer  were  found  ;  all  relics  bearing  witness  to  the 
presence  of  men  living  entirely  on  the  products  of  fisheries 
and  of  the  chase,  and  who  as  yet  were  strangers  to  all 
agriculture. 

The  shell-heaps  are  also  frequently  met  with  in  California, 
and  some  districts  near  San  Francisco  are  literally  covered 
with  them.  One  of  them,  situated  near  San  Pablo  (Contra 


FIG.  16. — Stone  mortar  (California). 

Costa  County),  is  more  than  a  mile  long  by  half  a  mile  wide. 
The  shells  of  which  it  is  made  up,  chiefly  those  of  the  oyster 
and  the  mussel,  have  all  been  subjected  to  the  action  of  fire.1 
Excavations  to  a  depth  of  twenty-five  feet  in  a  similar 
mound  have  yielded  arrow-points  and  hammers.  Among 
others  have  been  found  thousands  of  bone  implements  (fig. 
15),  the  largest  of  which  are  eight  inches  long.  Mixed  with 

'Foster,  "  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States,"  p.  163.     Bancroft,  voL 
IV.,  p.  709. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CAVES.  5  I 

these  tools  lay  human  remains,  which  have  unfortunately 
been  dispersed  without  any  benefit  to  science.1 

Dr.  Yates  sent  a  complete  collection  of  the  objects  found 
by  him  in  Alameda  County  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
at  Washington.*  It  includes  several  large  stone  mortars 
(fig.  16),  already  alluded  to,  some  implements  chiefly  in- 
tended for  boring,  pipes,  and  a  rough  representation  of  a 
phallus.  This  last  fact  must  be  noted,  for  we  shall  see  that 
discoveries  of  this  description  are  rare  in  America  ;  this  rar- 
ity contrasts  strangely  with  the  too  frequent  obscenities  of 
Greek  or  Roman  art. 

The  excavations  in  Oregon  were  directed  by  Paul  Schu- 
macher.* He  made  an  important  collection  of  mortars, 


FIG.  17. — Quartz  scraper. 

pipes  of  inferior  workmanship,  pieces  of  pottery,  little  cups 
of  soapstone,4  daggers,  knives,  flint  arrows,  attempts  at  sculp- 
ture, and  bone  or  shell  implements.  One  of  these  excava- 

1  Bancroft,  vol  IV.,  p.  711. 

1  "  Smithsonian  Report,"  1869,  p.  36. 

*  "  Researches  on  the  Kj6kkenm6ddings  of  the  Coast  of  Oregon  and  in  the 
Santa  Barbara  Islands  and  Adjacent  Mainland." — "  Bui.  U.  S.  Geog. 
Survey,"  vol.  III.  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1878. 

4  On  the  island  of  Santa  Catalina  Schumacher  found  a  quarry  of  soapstone 
or  steatite  where  the  ancient  inhabitants  had  set  up  a  regular  manufactory  of 
pots  and  dishes.  They  are  found  in  all  stages  of  production,  and  about  them 
may  be  picked  up  the  tools  used  in  fashioning  them.  Several  similar  dis- 
coveries in  New  England  are  mentioned.  A  steatite  or  soapstone  quarry  ex- 
isted at  Christiana,  Lancaster  County,  Pennsylvania.  More  than  2,000  stone 
implements  and  a  number  of  great  stones,  which  seem  to  have  served  as  ham- 
mers, have  been  collected  there.  The  same  process  was  employed  as  in  the 
island  of  Santa  Catalina  ;  the  stone  was  roughly  hewn  on  the  spot,  then  taken 
from  the  quarry  and  given  to  the  workman  who  finished  it  off,  giving  it  the  re- 
quired form. 


52  PRE-H1STOKIC   AMERICA. 

tions  brought  to  light  thirty  human  skulls  and  two  almost 
complete  skeletons.  The  dead  had  been  laid  beneath  the 
dwelling-place  of  the  living. 

Shell-heaps  also  abound  on  Vancouver  Island,  according 
to  a  manuscript  quoted  by  Bancroft  (vol.  IV.,  pp.  737,  741, 
et  seq^].  Amongst  heaps  of  shells  have  been  collected  ham- 
mers,  arrow-points,  wooden  clubs,  and  a  sort  of  knife  carved 
out  of  whalebone.  Amongst  the  debris  lay  skeletons.  One 
of  them  had  a  shell  bracelet  on  his  arm,  and  a  stone  arrow- 
head was  sticking  in  one  of  his  bones.  At  Esquimalt  a  dish 
was  found  with  two  handles,  one  of  them  representing  the 
figure  of  a  man,  the  other  the  head  of  an  animal.  As  we 
shall  see,  exactly  similar  articles  are  met  with  in  the  mounds 
of  Central  America.  That  of  Esquimalt  probably  dates 
from  the  same  period  as  the  mounds  with  which  the  island 
abounds,  some  composed  of  pebbles,  others  of  clay  or  sand. 
Huge  flat  stones,  regular  menhirs,1  are  often  placed  verti- 
cally on  these  mounds  ;  venerable  trees  overshadow  them, 
bearing  witness  to  their  antiquity.  Newfoundland  was  dis- 
covered in  1491  by  the  Venetian,  John  Cabot,  who  com- 
manded an  expedition  sent  out  at  the  expense  of  Henry 
VII.  of  England  ;  perhaps,  also,  for  that  question  is  still  un- 
decided, by  the  Portuguese  navigator,  Cortereal.  It  is  cer- 
tain, however,  that  when  it  was  discovered,  the  coast  of  the 
island  appeared  to  be  uninhabited.  The  numerous  mounds 
alone  attested  the  presence  of  man,  and  these  mounds,  with 
the  stone  implements  they  concealed,  must  therefore  date 
from  a  period  previous  to  the  arrival  of  Europeans. 

We  must  also  mention  the  pits  explored  by  Mr.  F.  W. 
Putnam  3  and  others  near  Madisonville,  in  the  Little  Miami 
valley.  These  pits,  which  are  from  three  to  four  feet  in 
diameter  and  from  four  to  seven  feet  deep,  are  filled  with 
ashes  arranged  in  thin  layers  and  mixed  with  gravel  and  char- 

1  A  Breton  word  signifying  long  stones,  generally  used  to  denote  the  tall  up- 
right stones  erected,  for  some  purpose  not  now  known  with  certainty,  by  the 
ancient  Celts. 

a  Putnam,  one  of  the  most  eminent  anthropologists  of  the  United  States, 
mentions  having  explored  more  than  400  of  these  pits. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CAVES.  53 

coal.  From  top  to  bottom  occur  numerous  bones  of  rep- 
tiles, fish,  birds,  and  mammals.  The  bones  of  the  deer,  elk, 
and  bear  had  been  broken  to  get  out  the  marrow ;  shells, 
too,  chiefly  fresh-water  mussels  of  the  genus  Unio,  were  col- 
lected ;  some  were  pierced  to  serve  as  ornaments ;  with 
them  were  fragments  of  pottery,  implements  made  of  bone, 
the  antlers  of  the  deer  and  the  elk,  arrow-points,  scrapers, 
hammers,  polished  stone  axes,  copper  ornaments,  beads,  and 
stone  pipes.  At  the  bottom  of  one  of  these  pits  Dr.  Metz 
found  a  large  quantity  of  carbonized  grains  of  corn,  covered 
with  corn  husks  and  a  matting  of  reeds,  also  carbonized. 
These  bear  witness  to  a  people  not  only  sedentary  but  agri- 
cultural. 

The  sambaquis  are  formed  of  the  remains  of  the  food  of  a 
people  who  for  centuries  inhabited  the  coasts  of  Brazil.1 
There,  as  in  a  book,  we  can  read  of  the  customs,  usages,  and 
incidents  of  the  daily  life  of  this  extinct  race.  Each  bed  of 
shells"  or  of  cinders  is  a  page,  on  which  facts  written  in 
stones  and  ashes  speak  for  themselves,  and  where  the  drama 
of  life  is  retraced  by  the  broken  bones  of  the  victims. 
From  a  heap  on  the  banks  of  the  Suguassu  River  numerous 
human  relics  have  been  taken,  the  fractures  in  the  bones 
showing  clearly  that  they  had  been  broken  to  get  out  the 
marrow.  The  cannibalism  of  these  ancient  inhabitants  of 
Brazil  need  not  surprise  us,  for  at  the  present  day  there  are 
in  this  empire,  so  advanced  in  many  respects,  no  less  than 
ten  cannibal  tribes,  numbering  altogether  some  70,000  or 
80,000  souls.1 

The  sambaquis  often  attain  a  considerable  height.  Captain 
Burton,  who  is,  it  is  true,  inclined  to  exaggerate,  speaks  of 

1  Rev.  Arch.,  vol.  XV.  ist.  series,  Paris,  1867.  Ch.  Wiener :  "  Estudos  sobre 
los  sambaquis  do  sul  do  Brazil  "  (Archives  de  Museo  National  de  Riode  Janeiro, 
vol.  I.,  1876). 

4  The  mollusca  of  which  they  are  composed  are  chiefly  bivalve  testacea,  espe- 
cially shells  of  the  genus  Corbula.  Oyster  and  whelk  shells  are  also  met 
with. 

"Dr.  Moure  :  "  Les  Indiens  de  la  Province  de  Matto  Grosso  "  ;  Dr.  Rath  de 
San  Paolo:  "Letter  Addressed  to  the  Anglo-Brazilian  Times." 


54  P RE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

having  seen  one  no  less  than  one  hundred  feet  high.  One 
thing  is  certain,  the  shells  forming  these  hillocks  are  so  nu- 
merous that  a  single  sambaqui  has  for  more  than  two 
centuries  not  only  supplied  all  the  lime  needed  by  the  little 
neighboring  town  of  Nostra-Senhora-da-Gloria,  but  yielded 
considerable  quantities  for  exportation. 

In  the  region  of  La  Plata  paraderos  are  met  with  some- 
what resembling  kitchen-middens.  Both  mark  the  sites  of 
human  dwellings,  and  the  absence  of  all  traces  of  disturbance 
excludes  the  idea  of  their  having  been  cemeteries  to 
which  they  were  at  first  likened.  Moreno  and  Zeballos 
have  described  those  in  several  parts  of  Buenos  Ayres ; 
Ameghino  in  his  turn  describes  those  of  the  banks  of  the 
Marco-Diaz,  the  Lujan,  and  the  Frias.1 

Numerous  mammal  bones  are  scattered  about  in  certain 
places,  often  covering  a  considerable  area.3  The  long  bones 
are  split,  others  show  grooves  and  cuts ;  nearly  all  have  been 
subjected  to  the  action  of  fire.  With  these  bones  have 
been  picked  up  stone  implements,  chiefly  arrow-points  (fig. 
1 8)  and  fragments  of  clumsy  and  badly  baked  pottery,  show- 
ing, however,  traces  of  artificial  coloration.  Heaps  of  burnt 
earth  and  charcoal  cinders  tell  clearly  of  the  hearths,  of 
men.  All  the  bones,  whether  of  mammals  or  birds,  are 
of  species,  such  as  the  deer  and  llama,  still  extant  in  South 
America ;  nowhere  are  any  bones  found,  such  as  those 
of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  pampas  formation,  belonging 
to  extinct  animals.  The  paraderos  must  not  therefore 
be  confounded  with  those  formations,  and  their  much  more 
modern  character  brings  them  near  to  that  of  the  ordinary 
shell-heaps. 

Recent  discoveries  *  have  lately  confirmed  this  conclusion. 
Excavations  in  a  tumulus  of  elliptical  form*  on  the  Parana 

'"La  Antiguedad  del  Ilombre  en  el  Plata,"  vol.  I.,  p.  302,  etc. 
'A  paradero  on  the  banks  of  the  Marco-Diaz  covers  an  area  of  612  by  408 
yards. 

*  Zeballos  :  "  Un  Tumulus  pre-historique  de  Buenos  Ayres  "  (Rev.  (FAnthrop., 
18-8,  p.  577)- 

*  The  greatest  diameter  is  260  ft.  ;  the  smallest  105  feet.    The  height  is  about 
eight  feet. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CAVES.  55 

near  the  port  of  Campana,  have  brought  to  light  a  great 
many  objects  which  bear  witness  to  an  advanced  state  of 
culture.  There  are  weapons  and  tools  of  quartz  or  of  blue 
granite,  often  of  remarkable  workmanship,  hand-mills  very 
like  those  still  in  use  in  the  interior  of  Africa,  implements  of 
deer-horn,  *  whistles  of  venado  wood,  and  above  all  a 
considerable  number  of  fragments  of  pottery,*  very  superior 
in  execution  to  any  hitherto  noticed.  Some  of  these  frag- 
ments are  colored  red,  others  are  decorated  with  designs  or 
ornamentation. 

Among  these  pieces  of  pottery  we  must  mention  some 
very  close  imitations  of  animals,  especially  a  parrot's  head 
very  true  to  life.  The  works  of  man  lay  mixed  together  in  a 


FlG.   18.— Arrow-points  from  the  paraderos  of  Patagonia. 

considerable  accumulation  of  large  pieces  of  charcoal,  fish,  and 
mammal  bones.  It  is  evident  that  this  mound  concealed  one 
or  more  primitive  hearths;  and  that  these  hearths,  accord- 
ing to  a  custom  that  we  meet  with  in  many  different 
races,  became  burial-places  ;  the  discovery  of  several  human 
skeletons  leaves  no  doubt  on  this  point. 

So  far  we  have  spoken  only  of  the  shell-heaps  near  the 
sea-coast,  and  formed  of  marine  shells.  Similar  heaps  are 
met  with  on  the  banks  of  streams  and  rivers,  made  of  the 
shells  of  such  fresh-water  or  even  of  terrestrial  mollusca,  as 
man  might  use  for  food.  In  Brazil,  of  which  we  are  now 
speaking,  there  are  sambaquis  thirty-seven  and  a  half  miles 

1  Cervus  rufus  and  C.  campestris. 

*  Dr.  Zeballos  speaks  of  more  than  3,000  fragments  ;  among  them  he  men- 
tions twenty  ollas  or  jars  sfill  intact. 


$  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

from  the  coast,  and  Professor  Hartt  has  described  one  at 
Taperinha",1  near  Santarem,  which  he  considers  very  ancient, 
and  which  is  entirely  made  up  of  river-shells,  mixed  with 
fragments  of  pottery,  cinders,  and  the  bones  of  different 
animals. 

On  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries  White 
has  also  recognized  shell-heaps,  composed  of  fluviatile  mol- 
lusks,  nearly  all  belonging  to  the  family  of  Naiadce,  and 
chiefly  to  the  genus  Unio.  Complete  success  has  rewarded 
his  persevering  researches  in  the  states  of  Minnesota,  Iowa, 
Illinois,  Missouri,  and  Indiana.4  The  heaps  excavated  by 
him  are  much  smaller  than  those  situated  on  the  sea- 
coast  ;  the  largest  are  not  more  than  about  one  hundred 
yards  long  by  four  to  five  broad,  and  about  three  to  six 
feet  deep.  That  of  Keosauqua  (Iowa)  rests  on  alluvial 
soil,  and  in  it  have  been  observed  fragments  of  stone  torn 
from  the  neighboring  rocks,  bearing  traces  of  fire,  and  frag- 
ments of  pottery  of  rude  workmanship,  mixed  with  large 
grains  of  sand  and  ornamented  with  lines  traced  with  a 
pointed  bone  or  stone.  In  this  same  shell-heap  White  col- 
lected flint-chips,  arrow-points,  and  a  serpentine  hatchet,  with 
numerous  bones  of  the  Virginia  deer.3  They  had  been  used 
as  food  by  man,  for  the  long  bones  which  contain  marrow  had 
been  split  open,  evidently  for  the  sake  of  extracting  it.  In 
other  heaps  at  Sabula  and  Bellevue,  Iowa,  White  was  able  to 
make  out  the  method  employed  by  these  men  in  cooking  the 
shell-fish  which  formed  their  chief  nourishment.  They  dug 
holes  in  the  ground  about  one  foot  in  diameter  and  of  cor- 
responding depth,  in  which  they  lighted  fires.  The  charcoal, 
ashes,  and  shells  found  in  each  one  of  these  holes  proves  this 
beyond  a  doubt. 

1  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1873,  p.  21. 

a"On  Artificial  Shell-heaps  of  Fresh-water  Mollusks  ;  Am.  Association, 
Portland  (Maine),  1873.  Very  ancient  shell-heaps  are  also  mentioned  as  exist- 
ing in  Tennessee,  especially  at  Chattanooga,  and  at  Mussel-Shoals.  Colonel 
Whittlesey,  whose  name  is  an  authority  in  America  on  all  these  questions,  ex- 
pressed regret  a  few  years  ago  that  these  heaps  had  not  been  excavated. 

s  In  Appendix  C.  we  give  White's  list  of  the  chief  mammals,  fish,  and  mol- 
lusca  which  he  found  in  the  mounds  he  examined. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CAVES.  57 

Jeffries  Wyman  describes  the  river  shell-heaps  of  Florida 
with  as  much  care  as  does  White  those  of  the  North.1  They 
are  mostly  mounds  exactly  similar  to  those  of  the  coast,  only 
entirely  made  up  of  fresh-water  shells,  associated  with  a  few 
rare  bones  of  the  Virginian  deer,  the  oppossum,  the  raccoon, 
and  some  remains  of  birds.  Some  of  these  heaps  also  con- 
tain shells  of  Ampullaria  and  Paludina?  hardly  suitable  for 
food,  and  rejected  with  disdain  by  the  present  Indians.  One 
of  the  most  remarkable  heaps  is  situated  at  Silver-Spring,  on 
the  western  side  of  Lake  George.  It  is  the  largest  of  those 
visited  by  Wyman,  in  the  valley  of  the  St.  John's  River.  It 
covers  an  area  of  twenty  acres ;  its  height  is  very  variable  ; 
here  it  rises  to  no  less  than  twenty  feet,  there  it  sinks  to  two 
or  three,  in  proportion  doubtless  to  the  number  of  the  in- 
habitants and  the  length  of  their  stay.  It  is  difficult  to  un- 
derstand how  man  can  have  collected  such  quantities  of  these 
mollusks,  which  now  seem  rare  alike  in  the  lake  and  the  river. 
We  must  therefore  suppose  that  they  were  much  more 
numerous  in  past  centuries,  and  have  disappeared  in  the  great 
struggle  for  existence  which  has  been  so  fiercely  maintained 
in  every  age  and  in  every  country.  This  is  no  exceptional 
instance  ;  the  oysters  of  gigantic  size,  the  shells  of  which 
form  the  vast  deposits  on  the  Damariscotta  River,  of  Maine, 
are  now  very  rare,  and  the  same  fact  has  been  observed  at 
Cape  Cod  and  Cotuit  Port.  Of  the  shells  found  in  the 
Danish  kitchen-midden,  those  of  oysters  were  the  most 
abundant,  and  they  are  now  but  very  poorly  represented  in 
the  Baltic.  Another  consequence  of  the  less  favorable  bio- 
logical conditions  now  enjoyed  by  the  oyster  is  that  it  is 
diminished  in  size,  and  it  is  the  same  with  the  mollusks 
of  Lake  George  and  the  St.  John's  River  as  with  the  oysters 

1  "  Fresh-water  Shell-heaps  of  the  St.  John  River"  ;  American  Naturalist, 
Jan.,  1868.  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1874.  Wyman  remarks  that  the  most 
ancient  beds  of  the  Florida  kitchen-middens  never  contain  specimens  of  pottery. 

3  Both  are  univalves.  The  former  lives  in  warm  latitudes  only  ;  its  shell  is 
globular,  the  whorls  ventricose,  and  with  a  wide  aperture  bounded  by  an  un- 
reflected  labrum.  Paludina  resembles  Ampullaria,  but  the  shell  is  longer  and 
more  slender,  and  generally  more  solid. 


58  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA, 

of  Maine.  It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  instances,  proving 
the  incessant  struggle  of  nature,  of  which  we  are  only  now 
beginning  to  discern  the  traces. 

The  fact  that  the  men  who  made  these  heaps  of  rubbish, 
which  are  now  the  sole  witnesses  to  their  existence,  fed  upon 
mollusks  now  rejected  by  the  Indians  themselves,  so  far 
from  particular  with  regard  to  their  food,  is  of  a  piece  with 
the  coarseness  of  their  potteries.  Wyman  tells  us  that 
amongst  the  thousands  of  fragments  he  examined,  none  are 
of  such  skilful  workmanship  or  of  such  elegant  ornamenta- 
tion as  those  of  the  mounds  of  Mississippi,  or  those  he  him- 
self picked  .up  in  the  sepulchres  of  Cedar  Keys,  or  in  the 
shell-heaps  of  Fernandina  and  of  St.  John's  Bluff,  on  the  sea- 
coast. 

Every  thing  .goes  to  prove  that  these  men  were  in  a  low 
state  of  culture  ;  we  need  not  therefore  wonder  to  find  that 
they  practised  cannibalism.  We  have  already  noted  its  ex- 
istence amongst  the  nomad  tribes  of  Brazil ; l  as  early  as  1861, 
Jeffries  Wyman  noticed,  in  an  excavation  made  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Monroe,  some  long  human  bones  (femur, 
tibia,  humcrus)  broken  into  pieces  a  few  inches  long  and 
mixed  with  bones  of  deer  broken  in  exactly  the  same  way.8 
His  interest  once  aroused,  he  paid  especial  attention  to  this 
question  in  his  later  researches,  and  he  had  soon  ten  very 
characteristic  examples,  which  left  no  doubt  in  his  mind  as 
to  the  existence  of  cannibalism  in  Florida,  at  the  period 
during  which  man  collected  about  his  dwelling  the  heaps  of 
rubbish  to  which  we  have  applied  the  name  of  shell-heaps. 

It  is  evident  that  the  human  bones  did  not  come  from  a 
burying-place;  no  skeleton  was  complete  ;  the  remains  of 
several  individuals  were  mixed  in  the  greatest  confusion  ;  all 
the  bones,  especially  the  long  ones  containing  marrow^  were 
broken  like  those  found  near  Lake  Monroe,  and  doubtless 

1  "  Omnes  cum  mngna  voluptate  vescuntur,"  says  Osorio,  of  the  natives  of 
Brazil,  speaking  of  their  predilection  for  human  flesh.  De  Rebus  Emmanuelis 
Regis  Lusitanice,  Colonise  Agrippinae,  1574. 

3  "  Human  Remains  in  the  Shell-heaps  of  the  St.  John's  River  (East  Florida)  ; 
Cannibalism." — "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  I.,  p.  26, 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CA  VES.  59 

for  the  same  reason  as  those  of  the  animals,  such  as  the  deer 
or  the  alligator,  which  these  people  used  as  food.  The  in- 
teresting excavations  at  Osceola  Mound  have  since  confirmed 
Wyman's  conjectures.  The  remains  of  men  and  animals 
were  inclosed  in  very  hard  breccia,  somewhat  like  that  of  the 
European  caves  which  have  yielded  such  important  results. 
From  this  breccia  Wyman  extracted  two  femora,  belonging 
to  two  different  individuals ;  on  one  of  them  he  noticed  an 
incision  made  round  the  bone  in  order  to  break  it  more 
easily.  On  the  other  femur,  the  incision  may  have  existed, 
but  it  is  not  sufficiently  marked  to  be  stated  with  certainty. 

The  learned  professor  also  mentions  a  human  bone  found 
at  Ipswich,  Massachusetts,  with  evident  marks  of  workman- 
ship upon  it. 

While  Jeffries  Wyman  was  proving  the  existence  of  can- 
nibalism in  the  southern  states,  Manly  Hardy  announced 
the  same  fact  with  regard  to  New  England.'  In  a  shell- 
heap  on  the  coast  of  Maine  he  discovered  thirty  or  forty  long 
bones,  the  femur,  tibia,  humerus,  radius,  a  sternum,  a  pelvis, 
and  two  human  skulls.  Among  these  remains  there  were 
literally  no  vertebrae,  ribs  or  little  bones  ;  none  of  the  human 
fragments  corresponded  with  each  other  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  make  it  possible  to  put  together  even  part  of  the  skeleton. 
The  long  bones  were  broken,  and  the  excavations  yielded 
bones  of  the  beaver  and  the  moose  mixed  with  the  human 
bones  broken  in  the  same  way.  There  were  also  bird  and 
fish-bones,  numerous  sea-shells,  some  fragments  of  pottery, 
a  stone  arrow  and  a  bone  needle.  In  many  places  heaps  of 
cinders  marked  the  hearth  of  the  cannibal,  where  he  had  pre- 
pared his  horrible  meals. 

Such  facts,  sad  as  they  are  for  humanity,  cannot  surprise 
us.  In  historic  times  we  find  man  feeding  on  human  flesh, 
even  in  the  midst  of  abundance,  and  that  when  most  animals 
show  a  singular  repugnance  to  eating  the  flesh  of  one  of  their 
own  species.  Herodotus  a  tells  us  of  the  cannibalism  of 

1  "  Report,  Peabocly  Museum,"  1877,  vol.  II.,  p.  197. 

•Book  IV.,  chap.  XVIII.,  XXVI..  etc.     These  people  probably  inhabited 
Central  Russia. 


60  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

several  of  the  people  in  the  neighboring  countries  of  Scythia, 
amongst  the  Androphagi  and  the  Issedonians,  for  instance. 
Aristotle  relates  it  of  several  peoples  on  the  borders  of  the 
Euxine.1  Diodorus  Siculus  mentions  it  amongst  the  Gala- 
tians,"  and  Strabo,  in  his  turn,  speaking  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Ireland,  says :  "  They  are  more  savage  than  the  Britons, 
feeding  on  human  flesh,  *  *  *  and  deeming  it  commenda- 
ble to  devour  their  deceased  parents."  3  In  the  ancient  tombs 
of  Asiatic  Georgia,  dating  from  the  eighth  to  the  second 
century,  B.  C,  boiled  or  charred  human  bones  are  found,  the 
remains,  doubtless,  of  victims  devoured  by  those  who  as- 
sisted in  the  feasts  which  formed  an  essential  part  of  the 
funeral  rites.4 

St.  Jerome,  in  the  fourth  century  A.  D.,  asserts  that  in 
Gaul  he  saw  some  Attacotes,  descended  from  a  savage 
Scotch  tribe,  who  lived  upon  human  flesh,  notwithstanding 
they  possessed  great  herds  of  swine,  oxen,  and  sheep,  to 
which  their  immense  forests  supplied  excellent  pasturage.6 
How  can  we  be  surprised  to  find  this  degrading  practice 
amongst  savage  tribes,  when  in  the  golden  age  of  Rome  the 
courtiers  of  the  Emperor  Commodus,  according  to  Galen,  ate 
human  flesh  in  a  refinement  of  gluttony,"  and  though  the 
Scandinavian  kitchen-middens  show  no  trace  of  cannibalism, 
Adam  of  Brenen,  who  lived  in  the  eleventh  century  and 

1  "  Treatise  on  Government,"  book  VIII. 

8  "  Biblical  History,"  book  V.,  chap.  XXXII. 

3  Strabo,  "  Geography,"  book  IV.,  ch.  V.,  pp.  298-9.     (Hamilton's  transla- 
tion, 1854.) 

4  Congress  Arch,  de  Kazan,  1877. 

'"Quid  loquar  de  ceteris  nationibus,  quum  ipse  adolescentulus  in  Gallia 
viderim  Attacotos,  gentem  Britannicam,  humanis  vesci  carnibus  et  quum  per 
sylvas  porcorum  greges  et  armentorum  pecudumque  reperiunt,  puerorum  nates 
et  feminarum  papillas,  solere  abscindere,  et  has  solas  ciborum  delicias  arbi- 
trari."  Hier.,  Opera,  vol.  II.,  p.  335,  coll.  Migne,  vol.  XXII.  Richard  of 
Cirencester  says  that  the  Attacotes  lived  on  the  banks  of  the  Clyde  beyond  the 
great  wall  of  Hadrian. 

'Commodus  lived  from  161  to  192  A.D.  We  take  this  fact  from  Bachelet's 
"  Dictionnaire  des  Sciences  morales  et  politque."  We  might  add  these  lines  of 
Juvenal:  "  ...  Sed  qui  mordere  cadaver  sustinuit,  nil  unquam  hac  came 
libentius  edit."  (Sat.  XV.,  v.,  87.) 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CAVES.  6 1 

preached  Christianity  at  the  Court  of  King  Sven  Ulfsen 
represents  the  Danes  of  his  time  as  wearing  the  skins  of 
beasts,  hunting  the  aurochs'  and  the  elk,  imitating  the  cries 
of  animals,  and  devouring  their  fellow-creatures.9 

Examples  also  abound  in  America,  and  the  death  of  the 
man  to  be  eaten  was  very  often  accompanied  by  horrible 
tortures,  unknown  among  the  natives  of  the  other  conti- 
nent. The  accounts  of  travels  published  by  Bry  contain 
many  details  of  the  ways  in  which  the  savages  of  Guiana 
were  accustomed  to  prepare,  cook,  and  eat  the  bodies  of 
their  victims.3  In  their  first  feeble  effort  to  reach  Peru  by 
way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  in  1524,  Pizarro  and  his 
companions  one  day  entered  an  Indian  village  from  which 
the  terrified  inhabitants  fled  precipitately  at  their  approach, 
leaving  the  human  flesh  they  were  cooking  before  the  fire.4 
The  Mexicans  indulged  in  these  hideous  repasts  on  all  their 
feast  days.  The  captive  was  given  up  to  the  warrior  who 
had  made  him  prisoner,  and  the  friends  of  the  conqueror 
were  invited  to  a  joyful  feast.  It  was  not,  says  Prescott,5 
the  meal  of  starving  wretches,  but  a  refined  banquet,  pre- 
pared with  all  the  art  the  Mexicans  could  bring  to  bear 
upon  it.  The  allies  of  the  Spaniards,  after  the  siege  of 
Mexico,  ate  the  flesh  of  their  enemies,  and  the  besieged 
sacrificed  in  the  honor  of  the  god  of  war  numerous  victims, 
amongst  whom  Cortes  often  recognized  one  of  his  soldiers, 
from  the  whiteness  of  the  skin.  After  the  sacrifice  the 
bodies  were  cut  up,  and  the  flesh  distributed  to  the  people. 

The  Caribs,  like  the  Fijians,  were  careful  to  fatten  the 

1  The  Bos  Urus  or  Bison  of  Poland. 

"  Schweden's  Urgeschichte,  p.  341. 

* "  Collectiones  peregrinationum  in  Indiam  Occidentalem,"  XXV.,  partes 
comprehensse  a  Th.  de  Bry  et  a  M.  Merian  publicatae,  Francofurti  ad  Moenum, 
1590,  1634.  "Bresil  voy.  de  J.  Stadius  Hesous,"  (Part  III.,  pp.  71,  81,  89,  125 
and  127).  "  Voyage  de  Joannes  Lerus  de  Burgundus,"  part  3,  p.  213.  See 
also  the  numerous  facts  collected  by  Wyman,  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum," 
1864. 

4  Prescott :    "  History  of  the  Conquest  of  Peru,"  p.  96,  1854. 

8  Prescott :  "  Hist,  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico,"  Philadelphia,  1874,  vol.  I., 
P-  3i. 


62  PRE-H1STOR1C  AMERICA. 

unfortunate  victims  they  meant  to  eat.1  Cannibalism  existed 
amongst  the  Algonquins,  Iroquois,  the  Maumis,  the  Kicka- 
poos,  and  many  other  tribes,  and  the  Jesuits,  who  were 
often  witnesses  of  the  feasts  in  which  human  flesh  was  the 
only  food  supplied,  have  handed  down  to  us  an  account  of 
them.2  One  shudders  with  horror  at  the  tortures  invented 
by  the  ingenuity  of  man.  Among  some  Indian  tribes  these 
tortures  began  several  days  before  the  final  sacrifice. 
Lighted  firebrands  were  applied  to  every  part  of  the  body; 
the  nails  of  the  fingers  and  toes  were  wrenched  off;  the 
flesh  was  torn,  and  burning  splinters  plunged  into  the  gaping 
wounds;  the  victim  was  scalped  and  burning  coals  applied 
to  the  spot.  Women3  and  children  were  not  the  least  eager 
amongst  the  torturers,  and  when  the  sufferer  at  last  expired, 
his  breast  was  opened,  and  if  he  had  died  bravely  the  heart 
was  taken  out,  cut  in  pieces,  and  distributed  to  the  young 
warriors  of  the  tribe.  They  also  drank  the  still  smoking 
blood,  hoping  to  inoculate  themselves  with  the  courage  of 
which  they  had  just  had  proof.  The  trunk,  limbs,  and  head 
were  roasted  or  boiled  ;  all  gorged  themselves  with  the 
horrible  food,  and  the  day  ended  with  dances  and  song 
which  gayly  finished  off  the  feast.4 

In  our  own  day,  even,  sailors  and  travellers  have  told  of 
similar  scenes.  The  Apaches,  to  a  very  recent  date, 
were  accustomed  to  treat  their  prisoners  with  a  ferocity 
equal  to  that  of  their  ancestors.  The  inhabitants  of  Terra 
del  Fuego  have  at  least  as  an  excuse  the  wretched  existence 
they  lead,  in  a  country  almost  destitute  of  all  the  neces- 

1  Peter  Martyr  d'  Anghiera  :  "  De  Rebus  Oceanicis  et  Orbe  Novo,  Decades, 
I.,  Book  I. 

9  P.  Hennepin :  "  Description  de  la  Louisiana,"  Paris,  1868,  pp.  65,  68, 
and  69. 

'  "On  this  occasion  it  is  always  observed  that  the  women  are  more  cruel 
than  the  men."  Schoolcraft :  "Ethnological  Researches  Respecting  the  Red 
Men  of  America,"  vol.  III.,  p.  189. 

4  La  Pothierie :  "  Hi.->toire  de  I'Amerique,"  Paris,  1723,  p.  23.  Father 
Jean  de  Brebeuf:  "  Voyage  dans  la  nouvelle  France  occidental."  He  himself 
perished  under  such  tortures  as  those  he  had  described.  Earth,  de  Vimont's 
"  Relation,"  Paris,  1642,  p.  46. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CA  VES.  63 

saries  of  life.  The  expeditions  of  these  miserable  savages, 
of  which  Captain  Fitzroy's  description  *  is  most  melancholy 
reading,  were  always  made  for  the  sake  of  getting  prisoners  ; 
when  they  failed,  and  hunger  became  pressing,  the  old 
women  of  the  tribe  were  seized,  roasted  at  a  roaring  fire, 
and  pieces  of  the  flesh  distributed  to  the  warriors.  Of  late 
years,  however,  a  better  state  of  things  has  prevailed  in  those 
desolate  regions,  brought  about  by  the  visits  of  various  ex- 
peditions, and  the  presence  among  them  of  devoted  mission- 
aries. But  if  the  famine  which  bears  so  hardly  on  the 
Fuegians  nearly  every  year  may  be  referred  to  as  an  excuse 
for  their  cannibalism,  we  nevertheless  find  this  practice  has 
prevailed  in  regions  of  plenty,  amongst  the  most  luxuriant 
vegetation  of  the  tropics.  Humboldt  saw  similar  scenes  on 
the  banks  of  the  Orinoco  ;  at  Tahiti  even,  where  the  gentle 
and  affectionate  manners  of  the  inhabitants  have  been  fre- 
quently noted  by  travellers,  the  sacrifice  of  prisoners  was 
followed  by  cannibal  feasts ;  the  honor  of  eating  the  eyes  of 
the  victims  being  reserved  to  the  king.  The  first  name  of 
Queen  Pomare  (A  imata,  I  eat  the  eye)  is  a  last  souvenir  of 
the  royal  privilege.1 

To  conclude  these  melancholy  accounts,  which  we  might 
easily  extend  indefinitely,  Dr.  Crevaux,  in  a  recent  explora- 
tion of  the  Amazon  and  its  chief  tributaries,  came  upon  sev- 
eral cannibal  tribes.  Amongst  the  Ouitotos,  who  live  on 
the  banks  of  the  Yapure,  he  saw  some  flutes  made  of  human 
bones,  and  he  tells  us  that  one  day,  having  surprised  an  old 
woman  in  the  act  of  preparing  her  dinner,  he  saw  the  grin- 
ning head  of  an  Indian  boiling  in  her  kettle. 

These  facts  form  a  striking  contrast  to  our  brilliant  civiliza- 
tion, and  to  the  progress  of  which  we  are  so  justly  proud. 
They  show  in  what  degradation  man  may  exist ;  what  prac- 
tices may  be  justified  by  custom  and  superstition ;  and  what 
efforts  must  still  be  made  to  raise  to  a  state  of  civilization 
so  many  miserable  races.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind,  how- 

"  Voyage  of  the  Adventure  and  the  Beagle,"  vol.  II.,  p.  183  and  189. 
'"Congr.  Preh.  de  Paris,"  1867,  p.  161. 


64  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

ever,  that  the  practice  of  cannibalism  in  many  cases  was  not 
a  mere  devotion  to  a  diet  of  human  flesh,  but  a  rite  or  ob- 
servance of  a  superstitious  or  religious  character,  not  so  far 
removed  from  the  anthropomorphism  which  in  the  Middle 
Ages  claimed  for  the  chief  Christian  rite  the  "  real  presence 
of  body  and  blood  "  of  the  victim  sacrificed  for  the  welfare 
of  the  race. 

In  regard  to  the  age  of  the  shell-heaps  the  day  has  not  yet 
come  for  expressing  a  definite  opinion.  It  is  certain  many 
of  them  are  of  great  antiquity,  and  that  additions  continued 
to  be  made  to  some  of  them  up  to  a  very  recent  time. 

Historians  are  generally  silent  about  these  heaps,  which  did 
not  attract  much  attention  until  archaeology  began  to  take 
its  place  among  the  sciences.  When  the  Indians  were  ques- 
tioned about  them  they  generally  answered  that  they  are 
very  old,  and  are  the  work  of  people  unknown  to  them  or  to 
their  fathers.1  As  an  exception  to  this  rule,  however,  the 
Californians  attribute  a  large  shell-heap  formed  of  mussel- 
shells  and  the  bones  of  animals,  on  Point  St.  George,  near 
San  Francisco,  to  the  Hohgates,  the  name  they  give  to  seven 
mythical  strangers  who  arrived  in  the  country  from  the  sea, 
and  who  were  the  first  to  build  and  live  in  houses.8  The 
Hohgates  killed  deer,  sea-lions,  and  seals  ;  they  collected  the 
mussels  which  were  very  abundant  on  the  neighboring  rocks, 
and  the  refuse  of  their  meals  became  piled  up  about  their 
homes.  One  day  when  fishing,  they  saw  a  gigantic  seal ;  they 
managed  to  drive  a  harpoon  into  it,  but  the  wounded  animal 
fled  seaward,  dragging  the  boat  rapidly  with  it  toward  the 
fathomless  abysses  of  the  Charekwin.  At  the  moment  when 
the  Hohgates  were  about  to  be  engulfed  in  the  depths,  where 
those  go  who  are  to  endure  eternal  cold,  the  rope  broke,  the 
seal  disappeared,  and  the  boat  was  flung  up  into  the  air. 

1  It  is  the  uniform  testimony  of  those  who  have  within  recent  years  been  in 
communication  with  the  Seminoles,  that  no  tradition  of  the  origin  of  these  heaps 
has  comedown  to  them.  They  attribute  them  to  their  predecessors  in  the  occu- 
pation of  the  peninsula  of  Florida.  See  Wyman,  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum," 
1868,  p.  16. 

'Bancroft,  vol.  III.,  p.  177. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CAVES,  65 

Since  then  the  Hohgates,  changed  into  brilliant  stars,  return 
no  more  to  earth,  where  the  shell-heaps  remain  as  witness  of 
their  former  residence. 

Though  tradition  is  silent  as  to  the  kitchen-middens,  a  few 
facts  exist  which  may  help  us  if  not  to  fix  a  definite  age  for 
them,  at  least  to  determine  something  of  their  limits.  The 
shell-heaps  existed  long  before  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards, 
and  the  mammals  whose  remains  are  found  in  them  were  of 
the  same  kind  as  those  seen  by  the  conquerors.  No  bones 
of  large  extinct  animals  have  been  found  in  the  shell-heaps, 
either  on  the  sea-coast  or  on  the  banks  of  rivers.  So  far  no 
discovery  has  been  made  in  those  of  North  America  of  any 
iron,  copper,  or  bronze  implements,  or  of  any  gold  or  silver 
objects.  It  therefore  seems  natural  to  place  their  formation 
between  the  time  of  the  disappearance  of  the  latest  tertiary 
fauna-and  the  first  introduction  of  metals  by  Europeans. 

It  is  evident  that  they  are  the  accumulations  of  many 
generations.  The  fresh-water  shell-heaps,  judging  from  those 
hitherto  examined,  appear  to  be  more  ancient  than  those 
formed  near  the  sea,  but  were  in  localities  less  liable  to 
denudation  and  change.  The  shell-heaps  of  California  are 
quite  recent,  those  of  Florida  perhaps  less  so ;  and  even  in 
neighboring  districts  the  pieces  of  pottery,  weapons,  and  im- 
plements found  in  different  shell-heaps  sometimes  pre- 
sent notable  differences,  suggesting  that  they  were  not  con- 
temporaneous. Did  the  men  who  slowly  piled  up  these 
shell-heaps  belong  to  one  race,  or  to  races  that  successively 
occupied  the  same  site  ?  Without  being  able  to  say  any 
thing  positive  on  this  point,  it  is  an  invariable  law  of  history, 
that  conquerors  should  occupy  the  dwellings  of  the  con- 
quered, until  they  were  in  their  turn  driven  out  by  yet  more 
powerful  or  braver  invaders.  The  shell-heaps  all  over  America 
greatly  resemble  each  other ;  but  there  is  nothing  in  this  re- 
semblance to  surprise  us;  it  is  natural  to  the  savage  to  throw 
out  at  the  door  of  his  hut  and  about  its  immediate  vicinity, 
useless  objects,  rubbish  of  all  kinds,  without  caring  about 
the  proximity  of  dirt.  This  is  a  common  thing  all  the  world 


66  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

over.  Travellers  who  visit  the  Eskimo  of  to-day,  the  last 
representatives  of  one  of  the  most  ancient  American  races,1 
tells  us  that  about  their  tents  the  ground  is  strewn  with  all 
sorts  of  rubbish,  emitting  a  most  noisome  odor.  There  we 
have  a  sufficiently  exact  picture  of  the  manners  and  customs 
of  most  of  the  savages  who  inhabited  America  in  pre-historic 
times. 

Amongst  these  heaps,  some,  those  of  Santa  Rosa  for  in- 
stance, bear  evidence  that  those  who  formed  them  devoted 
themselves  to  the  chase,  wearing  the  skins  of  the  animals 
they  killed  ;  numerous  bone  needles  giving  proof  of  their  in- 
dustry. Amongst  the  neighboring  .middens  of  Bear  Point, 
only  sea-shells  are  found ;  no  sign  of  the  bones  of  animals, 
no  bone  implements.  Must  we  then  conclude  that  the 
people  who  made  them  were  different,  or  that  their  clothes 
were  made  of  grass  or  of  fibres  from  the  bark  of  trees  ?  as 
were  those  of  the  natives  of  Florida,  according  to  the  Spanish 
conquerors,  who  were  the  first  to  penetrate  into  the  country. 

This  is  not  at  all  necessary.  These  natives  were  migratory 
with  the  seasons,  and,  judging  by  the  practice  of  the  Eskimo, 
probably  limited  their  pursuits  in  accordance  with  their  super- 
stitions ;  at  one  season  they  resided  at  a  certain  spot,  hunted 
the  seal,  but  perhaps  like  the  Eskimo  did  no  sewing  while 
the  hunt  was  going  on.  At  another  season,  as  in  winter,  re- 
tiring to  some  sheltered  cove  they  might  have  subsisted 
chiefly  on  mollusks,  and  occupied  their  time  in  making  cloth- 
ing, carving  wooden  or  bone  utensils,  etc.  Then  the  con- 
tents of  the  two  resulting  middens  would  be  quite  different, 
though  made  by  the  same  people  at  the  same  period  of  their 
history. 

Differences  are  often  noticeable  in  the  pottery.     The  vases 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  the  resemblance  in  primitive  times  between  the 
Eskimo  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  Aleutian  Islands.  The  weapons,  tools,  and 
implements  yielded  in  excavations  are  identical.  The  difference  in  the  fauna 
and  the  climate  gradually  modified  the  customs  of  the  two  branches  of  one 
people,  as  separation  did  their  language.  W.  H.  Dall,  "  Remains  of  Later  Pre- 
historic Man  from  the  Caves  of  the  Catherina  Archipelago,  Alaska  Territory." 
"Smith.  Cont.,"  No.  318,  4°,  1878. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CAVES.  67 

in  one  case  are  elegant  in  form  and  ornamentation;  the 
handles  represent  the  figures  of  animals  and  of  men,  they  re- 
semble in  many  respects  those  found  in  the  mounds  of  the 
interior.  In  other  cases,  on  the  contrary,  the  pottery  is  badly 
baked  and  of  coarse  construction.  In  certain  regions,  suit- 
able stone  is  rare,  and  pointed  bones  seem  to  have  served 
for  defensive  weapons  and  all  domestic  requirements.  As  a 
general  rule,  excavations  in  the  Atlantic  shell-heaps  have  not 
produced  either  a  single  pipe  or  a  fragment  that  could  have 
belonged  to  one,  so  that  the  fashion  of  smoking,  of  which  we 
shall  notice  so  many  traces,  probably  came  in  later.  On  the 
other  hand  we  find  ornaments  almost  everywhere,  and  often 
pieces  of  red  chalk  or  haematite,  doubtless  to  be  used  in 
coloring  wood  or  skins.  The  taste  for  finery  is  innate 
in  man  even  when  most  miserable  and  degraded,  and 
his  taste  sometimes  astonishes  us  with  the  strange  form 
it  assumes.  In  the  vast  regions  where  the  accumulations 
we  are  describing  have  been  found,  the  differences  must 
necessarily  be  very  considerable.  No  general  conclusions 
or  final  theories  are  possible  ;  for  if  one  point  seems  proved, 
many  others  are  uncertain  or  even  contradictory. 

One  method  has  frequently  been  adopted  in  forming  an 
approximate  idea  of  the  date  of  the  formation  of  certain 
shell-heaps.  There  are  some  which  are  covered  with  gigantic 
trees.  That  of  Silver-Spring  is  crowded  with  venerable  oaks ; 
one  of  the  largest  of  them  measures  no  less  than  twenty-six 
to  twenty-seven  feet  in  circumference,  so  that,  according  to 
Jeffries  Wyman,1  it  cannot  be  less  than  six  hundred  years  old. 
Judging  from  their  concentric  rings,  he  estimates  the  age  of 
the  trees  on  the  shell-heaps  of  Blue-Spring  and  Old  Town  at 
four  hundred  years.  If  these  calculations  could  be  con- 
sidered to  be  exact,  they  would  enable  us  to  ascertain  satis- 
factorily the  time  when  the  shell-heap  was  abandoned,  and 
the  forest  tree  replaced  the  dwelling  of  man  ;  but  even  then 
our  ignorance  would  remain  complete  as  to  the  initial  date 
when  the  accumulation  of  shell  and  rubbish  began,  and  it  is 
this  which  it  is  above  all  important  to  know. 

1  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1872,  vol.  I.,  p.  25. 


68  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA, 

Moreover,  recent  observations  of  botanists  show  that,  es- 
pecially in  warm  regions,  the  concentric  rings  of  growth  in 
trees  by  no  means  accord  with  successive  years  ;  more  than 
fifty  rings  having  been  observed  in  a  tree  only  fourteen  years 
old  on  one  occasion.  They  are  entirely  untrustworthy  as  a 
measure  of  chronology. 

The  deposits  of  guano  in  Peru  have  yielded  fish  (fig.  19), 
little  figures,  clumsy  gold  and  silver  images,  and  numerous 
fragments  of  pottery  The  Peabody  Museum  at  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  owns  twenty  gold  ornaments  from  the  Chincha  Islands.1 
These  consist  of  very  thin  metal  plates  arranged  in  parallelo- 
grams from  seven  to  eight  inches  long  by  three  to  four  wide, 
covered  with  dotted  lines  and  pierced  with  a  hole,  by  means 
of  which  they  can  be  hung  round  the  neck  or  fastened  to  the 
clothes.  Man  then  inhabited  these  islands  when  the  beds 
which  have  played  such  an  important  part  in  our  modern 


FIG.  19. — Silver  fish  from  the  Chincha  Islands. 

agriculture  were  accumulating,  and  doubtless  fed  upon  the 
numerous  sea-birds  peopling  them.  In  some  parts  the  beds 
are  covered  with  marine  deposits,  sometimes  attaining  a 
depth  of  six  feet.  A  geological  survey  of  the  district  indi- 
cates that  since  they  were  visited  by  man,  these  islands  have 
been  submerged  beneath  the  waves  and  have  emerged  from 
them  again  ;  but  the  causes  of  these  phenomena  are  yet  un- 
known. According  to  all  appearance  these  deposits  belong 
to  the  same  periods  as  the  shell-heaps  above  described  ;  the 
occurrence  of  precious  metals,  such  as  gold  and  silver  might, 
indeed  indicate  a  more  recent  epoch,  but  we  know  that  they 

1  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1874,  P-  20. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CA  VES.  69 

were  used  at  an  earlier  date  in  Peru  than  in  North  or  Central 
America. 

In  quaternary  times  the  Europeans  inhabited  natural  caves 
or  caves  artificially  enlarged,  according  to  their  requirements. 
These  caves,  especially  those  of  the  south  of  France  and  of 
Belgium,  have  yielded  the  most  certain  and  most  inter- 
esting proofs  of  the  existence  of  pre-historic  man,  and  of 
his  habits  and  his  daily  life.  In  America,  grottos  seem  to 
have  been  chiefly  used  as  burial-places,  during  a  period  of 
time  the  limits  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  fix.  The  earliest 
explorers  *  tell  of  caves  in  Virginia,  Tennessee,  and  Kentucky, 
in  which  human  bones  were  found.  Others  in  California  were, 
we  are  told,  covered  with  admirably  preserved  drawings  repre- 
senting men  or  strange  animals ;  they  contained  many 
mummies.  Clavigero,  who  gives  these  details,  adds  that 
these  men  differed  as  much  in  their  features  as  in  the  gar- 
ments with  which  they  were  covered,  from  the  races  met 
with  by  the  Spaniards.  From  a  cave  in  the  Rio  Norzas  val- 
ley, in  the  province  of  Durango,  Mexico,  a  considerable 
number  of  mummies  have  been  taken,  of  an  appearance  very 
distinct  from  the  present  inhabitants  of  the  country.  The 
objects  deposited  near  the  mummies  were  hatchets,  stone 
arrow-points,  and  vases,  the  decoration  of  which  has  been 
fancied  to  resemble  that  of  some  Egyptian  pottery.9  The 
Spaniards  could  not  contain  their  astonishment  at  the  sight 
of  the  marvellous  feather  garments  with  which  the  bodies  of 
the  Incas  of  Peru  were  covered,  in  the  caves  which  are  de- 
scribed as  forming  their  last  resting-places.  But  nearly  all 
these  caves,  if  they  ever  really  existed,  have  been  lost  sight 
of ;  or  all  they  contained  has  disappeared,  and  we  can  not 
doubt  the  exaggeration  which  appears  in  most  of  the  details 
given  by  the  conquerors.  The  very  few  caves  still  known 
are  extremely  difficult  to  explore.  Some,  especially  those 
met  with  in  Mexico,  in  Chihuahua,  or  California,  were  sepul- 
chres, and  retained  no  traces  of  previous  habitation ;  others 

1  Conant :     "  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races,"  ch.  VI. 
*  Proc.  Anthropological  Soc.  of  Washington,  1879,  p.  80. 


?O  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

had  been  occupied  by  Indians,  as  dwellings  or  places  of 
refuge,1  and  all  the  objects  that  explorers  have  been  able  to 
collect  are  of  recent  origin. 

Amongst  the  caves  which  may  be  of  some  interest,  we 
will  name  those  in  the  calcareous  cliffs  overlooking  the  Gas- 
conade River.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  is  in  Pulaski 
county,  Missouri.  It  was  originally  formed  in  geologi- 
cal times,  and  afterward  artificially  enlarged  by  man  ;  its 
entrance  is  rather  difficult  of  access,  being  perpendicular  to 
the  river.  Conant  had  a  trench  made  175  feet  long  without 
reaching  the  limits  of  the  successive  deposits.  We  give  a 
list  of  the  beds  as  they  occur,  with  their  depth  : 

A.  Alluvium  mixed  with  cinders  and  fragments          .  18   ins. 

B.  Cinders        .         .        .         .         .         .         .         .  2      " 

C.  Clay 2\  " 

D.  Cinders >  \  " 

E.  Alluvium      .        ,        .         .        .        .        .         .  3      " 

F.  Clay  and  cinders  mixed        .....  3 

G.  Cinders J   " 

H.  Alluvium     .        . 3$   " 

J.  Cinders  mixed  with  charcoal       ....  4     " 

K.  Alluvium     .         .         .         .         .        .         .         .  7      " 

L.  Cinders        .        .        .....        .        .  3     " 

M.  Alluvium  mixed  with  fragments  of  charcoal         .  20      " 

Total    .....  .         .         67    ins. 

The  strata  must  have  been  frequently  disturbed.  They 
consist  of  earth  and  cinders  mixed  with  fragments  of  pot- 
tery and  charcoal,  stone  implements,  broken  human  bones, 
and  a  great  number  of  bone  or  shell  tools  of  various  forms, 
rather  roughly  made  (fig.  20).  The  original  soil  consisted 
of  a  reddish  clay,  where  were  picked  up  numerous  shells  of 
Unios  completely  decomposed.  Similar  shells  occur  in  posi- 
tively prodigious  quantities  in  the  various  strata.  At  a 
depth  of  about  two  feet  the  explorers  came  to  a  skeleton 

1  Schoolcraft :  "  Archives  of  Aboriginal  Knowledge,"  vol.  IV.,  p.  217.  "  The 
Navajos,"  says  Gallatin,  "  inhabited  caves  in  which  they  kept  their  crops." 
"  Nouv.  Ann.  des  Voyages,"  vol.  CXXXI.,  1857. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND    CAVES.  /I 

lying  on  its  back,  then  to  a  second  doubled  up,  a  little 
further  to  that  of  a  very  old  woman.  All  were  in  such  an 
advanced  state  of  decay  that  only  a  few  fragments  could  be 
preserved,  and  those  were  of  no  use  for  comparison.  Round 
about  the  skeletons  were  strewn  great  quantities  of  the 
bones  of  deer,  bears,  mud-turtles,  and  wild  turkeys.  The 
skulls  of  all  the  animals  were  broken  ;  the  brains  were  evi- 
dently considered  a  dainty.  This  was  undoubtedly  a  cave 
long  inhabited  by  man  ;  burial  in  it  was  an  accidental  feat- 
ure, unless  these  bodies  may  have  been  intentionally  interred 
near  their  own  hearth.  We  lean  to  the  latter  opinion,  for 
this  was  a  custom  dear  to  the  heart  of  many  savage 
people. 

Shelter  cave,  near  Elyria,  Lorain  county,  Ohio,  must  also 
have  served  as  a  shelter  to  early  inhabitants  of  the  country. 


FIG.  20. — Bone  implements  from  the  Gasconade  River. 

At  a  depth  of  four  feet  the  difficulties  became  so  great  that 
the  excavations  could  not  be  proceeded  with.  At  this  point 
the  soil  formed  a  compact  breccia,  in  which  were  imbedded 
the  bones  of  the  bear,  wolf,  elk,  rabbit,  and  squirrel,  among 
which  could  be  made  out  three  human  skeletons,  probably 
those  of  men  who  had  been  crushed,  in  the  shelter  they  had 
chosen,  by  the  fall  of  part  of  the  roof.  The  skulls,  which 
were  in  a  good  state  of  preservation,  were  exhibited  in  Cin- 
cinnati, in  185  i,  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  They  were  unfortu- 
nately destroyed  a  few  years  afterward,  together  with  the 
museum  of  the  Homoeopathic  College  in  which  they  had 
been  placed,  and  we  have  no  information  enabling  us  to  de- 
scribe them.  One  of  the  most  distinguished  archaeologists  of 
the  United  States — Colonel  Whittlesey — attributes  a  great 


72  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

antiquity1  to  these  remains,  but  his  estimate  is  too  hy- 
pothetical to  be  worth  discussing. 

Ash  Cave  in  Benton  county,  Ohio,  is  one  of  these  rock- 
shelters,  so  common  in  the  south  of  France,  and  is  remark- 
able for  a  considerable  deposit  of  cinders  covering  an  area  of 
one  hundred  feet  long  by  an  average  breadth  of  eighty  feet. 
A  trench  two  and  one  half  feet  deep  revealed  a  considerable 
mass  of  debris  of  all  kinds,  bones  of  animals  such  as  were 
suitable  for  the  food  of  man,  little  sticks  which  may  have 
been  used  as  shafts  for  arrows,  fragments  of  pottery,  nuts, 
and  grass  fibres.  A  skeleton  was  seated  near  the  wall,  and 
the  pieces  of  bark  with  which  he  had  been  covered,  doubtless 
to  keep  the  cinders  from  touching  him,  could  still  be  made 
out.  The  greatest  precaution  had  also  evidently  been 
taken  with  regard  to  a  packet  of  little  seeds 9  placed  near 
him,  which  had  been  carefully  covered  with  a  layer  of  grass 
and  ferns,  and  then  with  some  coarse  tissue.  We  are  igno- 
rant alike  of  their  purpose  and  of  the  rite  with  which  they 
were  connected.  We  can  only  add  that  Professor  Andrews,3 
from  whom  we  have  gleaned  these  details,  considers  the 
skeleton  to  date  from  a  very  remote  period. 

In  June,  1878,  a  habitation  was  examined  situated  in  Sum- 
mit county,  Ohio  ;  it  was  formed  by  two  rocks,  each  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  feet  in  diameter,  with  a  third  rock  forming 
a  kind  of  roof.  This  dwelling,  open  though  it  was  on  the 
north  and  south,  had  served  as  a  home  for  long  generations, 
for  after  removing  a  thin  layer  of  vegetable  mould,  the 
archaeologists  who  conducted  the  excavation  met  with  beds 
of  cinders  four  or  five  feet  in  thickness.  Numerous  boul- 
ders, that  the  troglodytes  had  not  even  had  the  energy  to 
remove  from  their  wretched  residence,  were  imbedded 
amongst  these  cinders,  together  with  more  than  five  hun- 

1 "  Judging  from  the  appearances  of  the  bones  and  the  depth  of  the  accumu- 
lation over  them,  two  thousand  years  may  have  elapsed  since  these  human  skele- 
tons were  laid  on  the  floor  of  the  cave." — "  Evidences  of  the  Antiquity  of  Man 
in  the  U.  S." 

*  Chenopodium  album. 

'"Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1877,  vol.  II.,  p.  48. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AXD   CAVES.  73 

dred  fragments  of  pottery,  bones,  shells,  and  stone  weapons 
or  tools.  The  pottery  retained  the  marks  of  the  bark  fibres 
of  the  netting  in  which  it  had  been  supported  before 
baking.  The  deeper  the  excavations  went  the  coarser  and 
clumsier  was  the  pottery.  Not  one  of  the  stone  objects 
showed  the  slightest  trace  of  polishing,  and  most  of  them 
seem  to  have  served  as  knives.  The  bones  were  those  of 
the  bear,  wolf,  porcupine,  buffalo,  stag,  squirrel,  fox,  beaver, 
and  there  were  some  which  had  belonged  to  a  heron  and  a 
wild  turkey.  The  bones  containing  marrow  had  been  broken, 
some  were  roughly  pointed,  all  indicating  that  the  culture  of 
the  cave  men  had  been  of  the  most  primitive  description.1 

In  Pennsylvania,  eighty-two  miles  from  Philadelphia,2  on 
the  face  of  a  cliff  rising  parallel  to  the  Susquehanna  River, 
a  natural  cave  was  found,  some  seven  feet  high,  in  a  very- 
hard  quartzite,  showing  no  trace  of  erosion  either  by  the 
work  of  man  or  the  action  of  water.  The  original  soil  con- 
sisted of  yellow  clay,  and  on  this  clay  rested  a  bed  of  black 
mould,  some  thirty  inches  thick.8  The  whole  deposit  was 
rich  in  human  remains,  and  there  were  collected  here  more 
than  four  hundred  arrow-points  made  of  petrosilex,  jasper, 
basalt,  argillite,  with  rare  examples  in  quartzite,  which  ma- 
terials were  easily  accessible  from  the  neighboring  rocks. 
These  arrows  presented  a  great  variety  of  forms,  and  were  in 
every  stage  of  manufacture.  With  them  were  found  five 
perforated  objects  commonly  called  tomahawks,  but  too  thin 
to  have  been  used  as  a  weapon  or  tool ;  some  knives  or  frag- 
ments of  knives,  only  the  concave  sides  of  which  were 
polished,  the  convex  side  showing  a  groove  and  marks  of 
having  been  struck  sharply  ;  some  broken  turtle  bones,  some 

'Read,  "Exploration  of  a  Rock  shelter,  in  Boston,  Summit  county,  Ohio." 
— American  Antiquarian,  March,  1880. 

*  Haldeman  :    "A   Rock  Retreat  in  Pennsylvania,"  Congres  des  American- 
isles.     Luxembourg,  1877,  vol.  II.,  p.  319. 

*  "  This  mould,"  says  Haldeman,  "is  of  vegetable  origin."     Dr.  Andrews 
(American  Naturalist,  February,  1876)  says  that  it  must  have  taken  centuries 
to  form  ten  inches  of  vegetable  mould,  but  we  have  already  pointed  out  how 
hypothetical  such  calculations  always  are. 


74  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Unto  shells  from  the  river,  three  hundred  fragments  of  pot- 
tery, the  tube  of  an  earthenware  pipe  resembling  those  we 
shall  describe  in  connection  with  the  mound-builders,  and 
lastly  a  pestle  and  some  pieces  of  red  or  black  ferruginous 
minerals,  which  these  cave  men  had  used  to  get  the  colors 
they  required,  traces  of  these  colors  still  remaining  on  the 
pestle.  The  excavations  yielded  no  bones  that  could  be 
attributed  to  man.  Those  who  used'  this  shelter  were  not, 
therefore,  cannibals,  and  they  disposed  of  their  dead  away 
from  their  dwelling. 

Some  human  bones  have  been  picked  up  in  a  cave  near 
Louisville,  Kentucky.  This  cave,  which  is  very  large,  has  a 
remarkable  declivity  at  the  further  end  ;  it  has  been  very  im- 
perfectly excavated,  the  numerous  rattlesnakes  having  driven 
off  the  explorers.  It  has  been  ascertained  however,  that,  as 
in  the  cave  of  Elyria,  the  bones  were  imbedded  in  a  breccia 
formed  by  the  lime-impregnated  water  which  oozed  from 
the  roof.  After  a  great  deal  of  trouble  the  explorers  suc- 
ceeded in  taking  out  six  skulls  almost  intact,  and  with  them 
a  hatchet,  a  mortar,  and  a  stone  arrow-point.  Colonel 
Whittlesey  attributes  to  these  skulls  an  antiquity  no  less  re- 
mote than  to  those  of  Elyria. 

The  German  traveller,  Miiller,  tells  of  the  existence,  in  the 
province  of  Oajaca,  of  some  caves  which  had  been  used  as 
human  residences  from  a  very  ancient  epoch  ;  we  must  con- 
tent ourselves  with  mentioning  them,  together  with  the  dis- 
coveries made  at  High  Rock  Spring  near  Saratoga,  New 
York,  although  since  1839  some  archaeologists  have  claimed 
for  these,  as  first  traces  of  the  aboriginal  American,  a  great 
antiquity.1  We  hasten  to  pass  to  better  information  pub- 
lished in  an  excellent  report  addressed  in  1875  to  the 
trustees  of  the  Peabody  Museum  by  Putnam." 

The  learned  professor  noticed  near  Gregson's  Springs, 
Kentucky,  a  rock-shelter  resembling  those  we  have  men- 
tioned. The  rock  had  been  hollowed  out  artificially  and  the 

1  Dr.  Maguire  :  Proc.  Boston  Soc.  of  Natural  History,  vol.  II.,  May,  1839. 
1  Report,  Vol.  I.,  p.  48,  etc. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CAVES.  75 

soil  was  strewn  with  the  bones  of  animals,  worked  stone 
articles,  and  fragments  of  pottery  and  charcoal.  This  was 
but  a  beginning,  and  Putnam's  persevering  researches  ought 
to  lead  to  more  important  discoveries.1 

The  cave  known  as  Salt  Cave  may  be  compared  to  the 
celebrated  Mammoth  Cave.  It  consists  like  the  latter 
of  a  great  number  of  passages,  which  can  be  followed  for 
miles.  In  one  of  the  smaller  or  larger  rooms  to  which  these 
passages  lead  certain  traces  of  the  residence  of  man  were 
recognized.  These  are  the  cinders  of  several  hearths,  or 
piles  of  stones  built  up  with  a  cavity  in  the  centre  where,  ac- 
cording to  a  plausible  supposition,  fagots  of  chips,  or  of 
reeds  were  placed  to  give  light  to  the  cave.  In  several 
places  such  fagots  have  been  found  tied  together  with  fibres 
of  bark. 

In  one  little  dwelling-place,  at  about  three  miles  from  the 
entrance  to  the  cave,  f  Putnam  made  out  the  footprints  of  a 
man  shod  with  sandals,  and  a  little  further  on  he  found  the 
sandals  themselves,  made  with  great  skill  of  interwoven 
reeds.  The  garments  of  the  cave  men  were  woven  of 
the  bark  of  young  trees  ;  some  black  stripes  traced  on  a 
piece  of  cloth  so  prepared,  and  fragments  of  fringe  also 
found  in  the  cave,  bore  witness  to  their  taste  for  dress ;  an- 
other piece  of  stuff  curiously  mended  gave  proof  of  their  in- 
dustry. Remains  were  also  picked  up  of  gourds,  often 
of  considerable  size,  and  two  finely  worked  arrow-points. 
The  ground  was  covered  with  human  excrement,  the 
analyses  of  which  suggest  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  cave 
were  vegetarians,  but  excavations  have  only  yielded  a  few 
fresh-water  mussel-shells  almost  entirely  decomposed.  The 
discovery  of  sandals,  woven  stuffs,  the  absence  of  the  bones 

'We  will. merely  recall  several  caves,  such  as  those  called  Saunders'  Cave,  the 
Haunted  Cave,  and  one  situated  in  Hart  County.  Although  frequent  excava- 
tions and  disturbances  make  all  surmises  problematical,  the  probability  is 
that  these  caves  were  never  used  for  human  habitation,  but  were  only  used  as 
graves. 

'We  follow  Putnam's  account  :  the  distance  he  gives  appears  very  great, 
unless  we  suppose  the  existence  of  another  entrance  not  yet  known. 


76  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

of  animals,  and  the  long  habitation  of  the  cave  suggest 
a  sedentary  population  devoted  to  agriculture,  and  no 
longer  depending  exclusively  for  food  upon  hunting  and 
fishing. 

Putnam  adds  an  important  remark.  A  mummy  was  found 
in  1813  in  Short's  Cave, '  and  deposited  in  the  Museum  of 
Worcester,  Massachusetts  ;  a  careful  comparison  between  the 
clothes  it  wore  and  the  fragments  found  at  Salt  Cave  allow  us 
to  class  them  as  identical  in  character.  Here  then  we  have 
a  people  that  buried  their  dead  with  care,  and  whose  habitat 
extended  over  a  large  area.  Putnam  adds  that  certain 
details  of  the  burial  point  to  the  great  antiquity  of  the 
mummy  found  in  Short's  Cave  ;  adding  that  these  cave-men 
presented  every  appearance  of  a  culture  very  much  above 
that  of  the  savages  to  whom  the  shell-heaps  bear  witness,  and 
they  probably  date  from  a  less  remote  antiquity. 

When  caves  were  not  at  hand,  when  these  primeval  Am- 
ericans saw  before  them  nothing  but  vast  bare  plains,  shel- 
terless prairies,  impenetrable  forest,  haunted  by  wild  animals, 
these  first  Americans,  like  the  men  met  with  by  the  Spaniards, 
and  like  those  who  still  wander  in  the  deserts  of  Arizona  or 
of  New  Mexico,  probably  inhabited  wigwams,  put  together 
in  a  few  hours  (fig.  21)  and  destroyed  no  less  rapidly,  when 
the  nomad  habits  of  their  owners  or  the  pursuit  of  game  led 
them  to  a  distance.  Colonel  McKee,  who  was  one  of  the 
first  to  reach  California  when  the  country  was  first  occupied 
by  the  United  States  government,  tells  us  that  at  the  ap- 
proach of  summer  the  tribes  of  the  Northwest  burnt  their 
skins  or  reed  huts  in  which  they  had  spent  the  winter,  so  as 
to  destroy  the  vermin  with  which  they  swarmed.  Most  of 
the  men  of  these  tribes  went  about  nearly  naked  ;  the  women 
and  the  girls  of  marriageable  age  wore  only  a  little  petticoat 
reaching  from  the  waist  to  the  knees,  the  bosom  remaining 
uncovered  at  every  age. 

The  arrangement  of  the  hut  doubtless  varied,  as  it  does 

1  Short's  Cave  is  eight  miles  from  Mammoth  Cave,  which  is  often  wrongly 
cited  as  the  scene  of  the  discovery  of  this  mummy. 


77 


/8  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

now,  among  the  different  races  and  tribes.  The  Comanches 
set  upright  the  poles  which  were  to  keep  the  tent  in  position ; 
the  Lipans  and  Navajos '  tied  them  in  a  conical  form  ;  the 
Apaches  arranged  them  in  an  elliptical  oval.*  Each  tribe  had 
its  own  special  form  of  wigwam,  transmitted  from  its  ances- 
tors, and,  perpetuated  by  custom,  they  remained  permanently 
characteristic.  Even  now,  when  an  abandoned  camp  is  met 
with,  the  tribe  it  belonged  to  can  often  be  easily  ascertained 
by  an  examination  of  the  huts.  The  poles  were  sometimes 
covered  with  branches  or  with  skins,  sometimes  with  grass  or 
flat  stones.  The  huts  were  from  twelve  to  eighteen  feet  in 
diameter,  by  four  to  eight  feet  high.  Sometimes  the  ground 
was  hollowed  out,  so  as  to  give  the  family  a  little  more  room. 
A  triangular  opening  closed  with  a  strip  of  cloth  or  of  skin, 
completed  the  dwelling.  Other  tribes  contented  themselves 
with  digging  a  hole  in  the  earth  and  covering  it  with  branches. 
Some  of  the  Indians  of  New  Mexico  were  still  more  savage. 
Naked  and  horribly  dirty,  they  wandered  during  the  great 
heat  of  the  summer  near  the  water-courses,  taking  temporary 
shelter  now  in  a  ravine,  now  in  a  cave,  a  precarious  refuge, 
and  for  which  they  had  to  dispute  possession  with  wild 
beasts.  In  winter  they  built  up  a  circular  wall,  about  two 
feet  high,  with  stones  and  branches  of  trees.  This  wretched 
dwelling  could  never  be  closed,  a  roof  of  any  kind  being  con- 
trary to  their  superstitious  notions,  and  there  huddled  to- 
gether they  tried  to  protect  themselves  from  the  extremes 
of  cold.3  The  dwellings  of  the  people  inhabiting  the  central 
districts  of  Mexico  consisted  of  a  few  poles,  bound  together 
with  creepers  of  vigorous  growth  native  to  the  tropics,  and 
covered  in  with  palm  leaves.  In  the  colder  mountain  regions 

'James  Simpson  :  "  Journal  of  a  Military  Reconnaissance  from  Santa  Fe  to 
the  Navajo  Country,"  Philadelphia,  1852. 

a  Bartlett  :  "  Personal  Narrative  of  Exploration  and  Incidents  in  Texas,  New 
Mexico,  California,  Sonora,  and  Chihuahua,"  New  York,  1854. 

8  Venegas  :  "  Noticiade  la  California  y  desu  Conquista,"  Madrid,  1757  :  "  Le 
abitazione  le  piu  comuni  sono  ccrte  chiuse  circolari  di  sassi  schiolti  ed  amucchi- 
ati,  le  quali  hanno  cinque  piedi  didiametro  e  meno  di  due  d'altezza."  Clav- 
igero,  "  St.  del  la  California,"  vol.  I.,  p.  119,  Venezia,  1789. 


KITCHEN-MIDDENS  AND   CAVES.  79 

the  walls  were  formed  of  the  trunks,  firmly  bound  together 
with  cane,  and  covered  inside  and  out  with  a  thick  coating 
of  clay. 

Such  were  some  of  the  tribes  met  with  by  the  conquerors, 
and  such  doubtless  had  they  been  for  many  generations  be- 
fore the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards.  Side  by  side  with  them 
lived  others  more  interesting  to  the  historian  and  the  philoso- 
pher, and  of  these  it  is  now  time  to  speak.  The  mystery  in 
which  they  are  shrouded  adds  to  the  fascination  exerted  by 
a  mere  view  of  the  ruins  bearing  witness  to  their  presence 
in  the  past. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   MOUND   BUILDERS. 

The  existence  of  artificial  mounds  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Mississippi,  the  Ohio,  and  the  Missouri,  with  those  formed 
by  their  tributaries,  escaped  the  notice  of  the  first  pioneers 
in  America,  who  were  altogether  absorbed  with  the  search 
for  valuable  booty.  Garcilasso  de  Vega1  and  the  anonymous 
chronicler  of  the  unfortunate  expedition  of  Hernandez  de 
Sotoa  make,  it  is  true,  some  allusion  to  them  ;  but  it  was 
not  until  many  years  later,  when  a  regular  trade  was  estab- 
lished with  the  Indians3  living  beyond  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains, that  any  exact  information  was  obtained  with  regard 
to  these  rude  but  imposing  monuments — sole  witness  of  a 
life  and  customs  which  remain  almost  unknown. 

Carver  in  1776  and  Harte  in  1791,  were  the  first  to  take 
any  special  notice  of  these  mounds ;  Breckenridge,  who  wrote 
of  them  in  1814,*  tells  us  that  they  astonished  him  as  much 
as  did  the  monuments  of  Egypt ;  and  later  Messrs.  Squierand 
Davis  checked  earlier  accounts  by  the  more  exact  methods  of 

1  "  History  of  Florida,"  published  at  Lisbon  in  1605,  at  Madrid  in  1723,  and 
translated  several  times  into  other  languages. 

*  "  Velacao  verdadeira  dos  trabalhos  que  ho  gobernador  don  Fernando  de  Soto 
et  certos  fidalgos  Portuguesos  passaraono  descobrimiento  da  provincia  da  Flor- 
ida," translated  into  French  and  published  in  Paris  in  1685;  translated  into  Eng- 
lish and  published  for  the  Hakluyt  Society  in  1851.  Consult  also,  in  the  Ter- 
naux  collection,  the  account  given  by  the  chaplain  of  this  expedition,  which 
took  place  in  1539. 

The  Grenville  collection  in  the  British  Museum  has  a  rare  copy  of  the  first 
edition  of  this  work.  It  is  a  small  octavo  in  black  letter. 

1  They  themselves  had  given  to  theYazoo  the  characteristic  name  of  River  of 
the  Ancient  Ruins,  on  account  of  the  mounds  in  its  vicinity. 

4  "  Views  of  Louisiana,"  Pittsburg,  1814. 

80 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  8 1 

modern  science.  Between  1845  and  1847,  more  than  two 
hundred  mounds  were  excavated  by  them,  and  the  descrip- 
tion they  give,  published  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  is 
still  our  best  guide  with  regard  to  these  remains.1  This 
publication  gave  a  fresh  impulse  to  investigations.  Expe- 
ditions undertaken  on  every  side  and  carried  out  with  zeal, 
resulted  in  the  finding  of  the  most  diverse  and  curious 
objects.  Most  interesting  monographs  and  careful  studies 
were  published  after  the  expeditions,  and  it  is  our  task  to 
make  known  the  results  of  both. 

The  mounds  are  artificial  hillocks  of  earth,  nearly  always 
constructed  with  a  good  deal  of  precision.  They  are  of  vari- 
ous forms,  round,  oval,  square,  more  rarely  polygonal  or  tri- 
angular. Their  height  varies  from  a  few  inches  to  more 
than  ninety  feet,3  and  their  diameter  from  three  to  about  a 
thousand  feet.  Those  supposed  to  be  intended  for  the  per- 
formance of  religious  rites  end  in  a  platform,  which  is 
reached  by  a  skilfully  planned  flight  of  steps  ;  none  of  these 
however  are  known  north  of  Mexico ;  others  can  be 
climbed  with  difficulty.  Some  rise  from  the  summit  of 
a  hill,  others  stretch  away  irregularly  in  the  plains,  often 
for  a  distance  of  several  miles ;  others  again  we  find  sym- 
metrically arranged  and  enclosed  within  walls,  built  of  earth, 
as  are  the  mounds  themselves.  All  those  of  the  United 
States,  however,  whatever  their  form  or  size,  present  very 
remarkable  analogies  with  each  other,  and  evidently 
belonged  to  men  in  about  the  same  stage  of  culture, 
submitting  to  similar  influences  and  actuated  by  similar 
motives.  We  find  these  mounds  in  the  valleys'  already 
mentioned,  and  in  those  of  Wyoming  ;  of  the  rivers  Susque- 

1  "  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley."  Smith.  Cont.  to  Knowl- 
edge, Philadelphia,  1847,  vol.  I.  Arch.  Americana,  vol.  I. 

*  Dr.   Habel  ("Smithsonian  Contributions,"  vol.  XXII.)  mentions  a  conical 
mound  300  or  400  feet  high  near  Quito,  but  grave  doubts  are  entertained  as  to 
its  origin  and  artificial  character. 

*  According  to  Dr.  Foster's  calculations,  the   Mississippi  Valley  includes  an 
area  of   2,455,000   square   miles,    measuring   30°    longitude  by  23°    latitude. 
"  Mississippi  Valley,"  Chicago,  1869,  p.  31. 


82  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

hanna,  Yazoo,  and  Tennessee;  on  the  banks  of  Lake  Ontario 
as  far  as  the  St.  Lawrence ;  in  the  western  districts  of  the 
state  of  New  York ;  in  the  states  of  Missouri,  Mississippi, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Nebraska,  and  Louisiana;  the 
valleys  of  the  Arkansas  and  of  the  Red  River.  Near 
Carthage,  Alabama,  a  remarkable  group  of  truncated  mounds 
is  described,  surrounded  by  embankments  which  are  gradu- 
ally disappearing  beneath  the  plough.  In  the  South,  how- 
ever, the  mounds  appear  to  be  less  ancient  than  on  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi ;  as  if  the  builders  had  been  gradually  driven 
back  by  an  invading  enemy  from  the  North. 

Similar  tumuli  stretch  all  along  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  from  Florida  to  Texas.  In  the  latter  state  and  in 
South  Carolina,  especially,  occur  conical  mounds,  forming  a 
transition  in  shape  between  this  kind  of  structure  and  the 
teocallis '  of  Mexico,  in  which  a  temple  crowns  a  truncated 
pyramid,  in  this  case  built  of  stone.9  In  Yucatan  and  Chi- 
apas, artificial  mounds  form  the  foundation  of  some  remark- 
able monuments  that  we  shall  have  to  describe,  and  which 
were  already  old  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  Conquest.3 
Wells  relates  that  in  Honduras,  even  in  the  forests  through 
which  a  path  must  be  cut  axe  in  hand,  the  Baqueanos4  find 

1  The  Mexicans  acknowledged  a  God,  Teut  or  Theot ;  hence  the  name  of 
Teocallis,  the  house  of  God. 

a  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  speaks  of  a  great  number  of  tumuli  in  the  province 
of  Vera  Paz,  presenting,  he  says,  a  striking  resemblance  to  those  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley.  They  are  of  reddish  earth,  and  the  Indians  call  them  Cakhay, 
or  the  red  houses  ("  Histoire  des  Nations  civilizees,"  t.  I.,  p.  15). 

3  The  whole  central  region  is  strewn  with  mounds  bearing  ruined  buildings 
(Bancroft,  vol.  IV.,  p.  200).     Such  artificial  mounds  are  met  with  at  Uxmal, 
Nohpat,  Kabah,  and  I.abnah.     The  Mayas  always  raised  a  mound  as  a  founda- 
tion for  their  buildings  ;   if  a  natural  eminence  existed,  they  took  pains  to 
enlarge  it.     Near  the  port  of  Silan  two  mounds  are  described  on  which  are 
seen  extensive  ruins  (Stephens  :   "  Incidents  of  Travel  in  Yucatan,"  New  York, 
1858,  vol.  II.,  p.  427).     Close  to  the  Rio  Layarto  are  two  pyramids,  on  the 
summit  of  which  now  grow  lofty  tufts  of  trees  (Baril,  "  La  Mexique,"  Douai, 
1862,  p.  129).     Monte  Cuyo,  near  Yalahao,  which  is  visible  far  out  at  sea,  was 
spoken  of  even  by  the  old  navigator  Dampier  as  the  work  of  man. 

4  Wells  called  them  Vaqueros,  and  on  his  authority  we  had  used  that  name  ; 
but  from  a  communication  that  Mr.  Ch.  Barbier  has  been  good  enough  to 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  83 

mounds  often  of  remarkable  height.  Each  of  these  mounds 
yielded  pieces  of  pottery,  clumsy  in  construction,  but  of 
curious  shape  and  ornamentation.  Mounds  are  said  to 
occur  on  the  shores  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  in  Utah,  and  in 
Arizona.  They  also  occur,  though  of  smaller  dimensions,  in 
California  and  Oregon,  in  the  valleys  formed  by  the  Colo- 
rado and  its  tributaries,  and  Taylor  pretends  to  have  counted 
them  by  thousands  from  an  eminence  overlooking  the  Mer- 
ced River.  Their  number  diminishes  as  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
is  approached.  Rare  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains,  they 
are  still  more  so  in  British  America. 

The  number,  form,  and  disposition  of  these  mounds,  often 
so  strange  in  their  design,  so  original  in  their  execution, 
with  the  objects  brought  to  light  by  excavations,  are,  we 
repeat,  characteristic,  and  such  as  forbid  their  being  classed 
indiscriminately  with  the  burial  mounds  common  to  all  parts 
of  the  world.  It  is  amongst  these  latter  that  we  must  class 
the  mounds  travellers  tell  of  in  British  Columbia,  Vancouver 
Island,  Peru,  Brazil,  and  the  pampas  of  Patagonia.  Father 
Acufta  tells  of  countless  tumuli  in  the  Terraba  plains  of 
Costa  Rica,  the  centre  of  a  once  numerous  population.1 
Other  tumuli,  no  less  numerous,  bear  witness  to  ancient 
history  in  the  desert  stretching  all  along  the  Mosquito  coast 
of  Central  America.*  Near  the  Balize  River3  mounds  raised 
in  honor  of  the  dead  and  surrounded  with  circles  of  stones 
recall  the  cromlechs 4  of  the  old  world.  Lastly,  Dr.  Ze- 
ballos  gives  us  a  description  of  a  tumulus  near  Campana, 

address  to  us  we  learn  that  the  Yaqueros,  rulers  of  the  vast  herds  of  the  country, 
do  not  make  these  researches.  They  may  far  more  reasonably  be  attributed  to 
the  Baqueanos,  who  served  as  guides  to  the  explorers. 

1  Harper's  Magazine,  vol.  XX.,  p.  319. 

'  Boyle,  "  A  Ride  Across  the  Continent,"  vol.  I.,  p.  296. 

*  G.   Henderson:    "An  Account  of  the  British  Settlement  of   Honduras," 
London,  1811.     Frobel :  "  Seven  Years'  Travel  in  Central  America,"  London, 
1859. 

*  A  cromlech  is  the  name  given  by  archaeologists  to  a  heap  composed  of  two 
or  more  upright  stones  with  a  flat  stone  laid  across  them,  marking  a  tomb. 
Cromlechs  are  to  be  met  with  throughout  the  British  Isles,  in  France,  and  other 
European  countries,  and  in  some  parts  of  Asia  and  America. 


84  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Buenos  Ayres,1  which  is  over  six  feet  high  and  measures 
about  two  hundred  and  sixty  feet  long  and  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  feet  across.  Excavations  resulted  in  the  dis- 
covery of  twenty-seven  skeletons ;  round  about  them  lay 
arrow-points,  stone  hatchets,  stones  for  slings,  and  a  con- 
siderable quantity  of  bones  of  animals  and  fragments  of 
pottery. 

In  other  places  explorers  tell  of  piles  of  stones.  These 
piles  may  probably  date  from  much  more  recent  periods,  for 
even  in  our  own  day  the  Indians  have  a  custom  of  adding  a 
stone  when  they  pass  near  the  spots  which  tradition  has  long 
pointed  out  as  the  burial-places  of  ancient  chiefs,  or  for  some 
other  reason.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  Ozark  hills  have  be- 
come covered  with  cairns  or  murgers.8  They  were  looked 
upon  as  posts  of  observation,  but  their  number  alone  is 
enough  to  confute  this  hypothesis,  and  excavations  have  of- 
ten yielded  human  bones,  leaving  no  doubt  as  to  the  real 
purpose  of  some  of  the  mounds.3 

We  meet  with  such  cairns  again  in  Honduras,  near  San 
Salvador.  Three  miles  from  Toolesborough,  Iowa,  there  are 
mounds  actually  built  of  granite  boulders  taken  from  the  bed 
of  the  river.  But  it  is  in  their  style  of  construction  alone 
that  they  differ  from  other  mounds  ;  in  them  also  excavations 
have  brought  to  light  charcoal,  worked  stone,  and  the 
charred  bones  of  animals. 

In  several  states  of  the  far  West  the  mounds  represent 
mammals,  birds,  and  reptiles ;  indeed  some  bold  architects 
have  not  hesitated  to  attempt  to  imitate  the  human  body. 

Ohio  appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  centres  of  mound- 
building.  It  is  true  that  we  meet  with  fewer  mounds  of 
strange  form,  but  their  total  number  is  considerable.  It  can- 
not be  estimated  at  less  than  10,000,  of  which  1,500  are  en- 
closed, and  it  has  been  calculated  that  the  total  length  of  all 
the  mounds  raised  by  man  in  this  one  State  would  be  no  less 

1  Rev.  d'  Anthropologie,  1879. 

*  Habel :  "  Investigations  in  Central  and  South  America,"  Smithsonian  Con- 
tributions, vol.  XXII. 

'  American  Antiquarian,  July,  1879,  p.  59. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  85 

than  306  miles.1  The  whole  of  Missouri,  especially  the  south- 
east portion  known  as  the  Swamp  region  a  is  also  covered 
with  countless  tumuli,  often  grouped  with  evident  design.  In 
the  state  of  New  York,  there  are  250  enclosures  resembling 
our  modern  fortifications.3  In  an  area  of  fifty  miles,  on  the 
bordersof  the  states  of  Iowa  and  Illinois,  2,500  mounds  have 
been  made  out  without  counting  earthern  inclosures.4 
Everywhere  a  much  greater  number  than  this  have  been 
destroyed  by  colonists  and  farmers,  caring  little  in  their  hard 
struggle  for  existence  for  those  who  preceded  them.  Others, 
lost  in  vast  deserts  or  in  the  impenetrable  forests  covering  a 
considerable  area  in  the  two  Americas,  are  still  unknown 
to  us. 

The  extent  of  the  territory  occupied  by  the  builders  of 
mounds  in  Central  America,  with  the  number  of  mounds 
erected  by  them,  proves  the  great  length  of  their  exist- 
ence. The  importance  of  some  of  the  works,  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  judgment  of  competent  engineers,  it  would  have 
taken  several  thousand  of  our  workmen,  provided  with  all 
the  resources  of  our  grand  modern  industries,6  months  to 
execute,  bears  witness  to  an  organized  community  and  a 
powerful  hierarchy.  Lastly,  the  regularity  of  the  buildings 
with  the  excellence  of  the  execution  of  the  objects  found  in 
them,  prove  to  what  an  extent  artistic  feeling  was  developed 
amongst  the  makers  of  the  mounds,  whose  existence  has  so 
unexpectedly  been  revealed  to  us  by  excavations. 

It  is  with  the  relics  of  an  unknown  and  remote  past  that 

'Bancroft,  vol.  IV.,  p.  752.  Pidgeon  :  "Ant.  Researches,"  New  York,  1858. 
Lewis  &  Clark  :  "  Travels  to  the  Source  of  the  Missouri  River,"  London,  1814. 

aThe  Swamp  region  covers  an  area  of  4,000  square  miles,  and  includes  six 
counties  and  portions  of  three  others.  The  soil  is  formed  of  recent  alluvium 
covering  tertiary  beds  of  gravel,  clay,  and  marl  filled  with  fossils.  (W.  P. 
Potter:  "Arch.  Remains  in  S.  E.  Missouri,"  St.  Louis  Acad.  of  Sciences, 
1880.) 

3  Squier  :    "  Ant.  of  the  State  of  New  York,"  Buffalo,  1851.   "  Report,  Pea- 
body  Museum,"  1880,  vol.  II.,  p.  721. 

4  American  Antiquarian,  July,  1879,  P-  59  et  Se1- 

6  The  builders  had  no  beasts  of  burden.  These  large  structures  were,  there- 
fore, built  by  man  unaided. 


86 


PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA, 


we  have  to  deal,  and  we  will  begin  with  the  mounds ;  but 
the  confusion  in  which  the  different  forms  they  assume  are 
mixed  together,  adds  singularly  to  the  difficulty  of  the  task. 
Cones  and  pyramids  are  enclosed  within  a  sort  of  breast- 
work ;  mounds  supposed  to  be  intended  for  the  offering  up 
of  sacrifices  are  connected  with  tumuli ;  side  by  side  with 
those  representing  animals  rise  polygonal  or  triangular 
mounds.  Dr.  Andrews1  mentions  in  a  plan  of  Athens 
county,  Ohio,  a  collection  of  twenty-three  mounds,  seven 
of  which,  according  to  him,  were  intended  as  fortifications 
and  sixteen  as  burial-places.  The  loftiest  is  40  feet  high 


FIG.  22. — Triangular  mounds. 

by  170  in  diameter.'  In  Pike  county,  Pennsylvania,  a  per- 
fect square  is  to  be  seen  enclosed  within  a  circle  constructed 
with  no  less  regularity  ;  at  Portsmouth,  four  concentric  cir- 
cles intersected  by  wide  avenues  perfectly  true  to  the  car- 
dinal points.  The  mounds  near  St.  Louis  formed  three  sides 
of  a  parallelogram  about  328  yards  long  by  215  yards  wide. 
The  fourth  side  was  shut  in  by  three  smaller  mounds.* 

1  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1877. 

*  The  content  of  this  mound  is  estimated  at  437,742  cubic  feet,  and  as  no 
signs  of  excavations  are  to  be  seen  in  the  neighborhood,  one  can  but  suppose 
that  this  mass  of  earth  was  brought  from  a  distance. 

*  Breckenridge  :     "Views   of  Louisiana."     St.    Louis   is   sometimes    called 
Mound  City  on  account  of  the  number  of  mounds  which  rise,  or  rather  did  rise, 
in  its  neighborhood. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  87 

According  to  De  Hass,  the  mounds  of  Illinois  form  quite 
a  town,  a  vast  and  mysterious  series  of  monuments.  He 
tells  us  that  he  was  surprised  to  find  nothing  but  sepulchres 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Mississippi,  whereas  everywhere  else 
the  groups  of  ruins  were  associated  with  walls  of  circum- 
vallation.  Conant '  tells  of  a  collection  of  mounds  on  the 
Root  River,  about  twenty  miles  from  its  junction  with  the 
Mississippi  (fig.  22).  The  chief  mound  measures  twelve  feet 
in  height  by  thirty-six  feet  in  diameter.  It  is  situated  in  the 
centre  of  a  circle,  of  which  traces  can  still  be  made  out.  The 
ridges  forming  the  three  sides  of  the  triangle  are  of  equal 
length — 144  feet ;  their  diameter  is  twelve  feet,  and  their 
height  three,  four,  and  five  feet  respectively.  It  is  remark- 
able that  these  heights,  taken  together,  equal  the  height  of 
the  central  mound,  and  that  when  they  are  multiplied  to- 
gether the  length  of  the  sides  of  the  triangle  is  obtained. 
This  is  doubtless  an  accidental  coincidence,  though  several 
earthworks  are  mentioned  of  square  or  rectangular  form,  in 
which  a  similar  relation  is  alleged  to  exist  between  the 
height  and  lengths  of  the  mounds  forming  them. 

As  they  have  been  subjected  to  vertical  denudation  for  an 
uncounted  number  of  years,  it  is  certain  that  any  numerical 
relations  existing  at  present  are  different  from  those  which 
originally  characterized  such  mounds. 

These  facts  will  show  how  very  difficult,  not  to  say  impos- 
sible, is  any  classification  ;  we  will,  however,  follow  that  of 
Squier;  for,  in  spite  of  some  too  apparent  inaccuracies,  it 
has  the  advantage  of  simplifying  our  task  and  supplying  an 
approximate  grouping,  each  class  of  which  will  be  success- 
ively taken  up  alterward.  They  are  :  I,  Defensive  works  ; 
2,  Sacred  enclosures;  3,  Temples;  4,  Altar  mounds;  5, 
Sepulchral  mounds ;  and  6,  Mounds  representing  animals. 
Short  ("  North  Americans,"  p.  81)  gives  a  slightly  different 
classification,  as  follows : 

1  "  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races,"  St.  Louis,  1879,  p.  30. 


88  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

(For  Defence. 

I. — ENCLOSURES   -I  For  Religious  Purposes. 
(  Miscellaneous, 
f  Of  Sacrifice. 

For  Temple-sites. 
II.-MOUNDS     .     j  of  Sepulchre. 

[_  Of  Observation. 

To  these  different  lists  perhaps  may  be  added  mounds 
built  of  adobes,  or  unburnt  brick,  which  have  crumbled  to 
dust  and  are  the  remains  of  successive  dwellings 

The  whole  of  the  space  separating  the  Alleghanies  from 
the  Rocky  Mountains  affords  a  succession  of  entrenched 
camps,  fortifications  generally  made  of  earth.  There  were 
used  ramparts,  stockades,  and  trenches1  near  many  eminences, 
and  nearly  every  junction  of  two  large  rivers.  These  works 
bear  witness  to  the  intelligence  of  the  race,  which  has  so 
long  been  looked  upon  as  completely  barbarous  and  wild, 
and  an  actual  system  of  defences  in  connection  with  each 
other  can  in  some  cases  be  made  out,  with  observatories  on 
adjacent  heights,  and  concentric  ridges  of  earth  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  entrances.  War  was  evidently  an  important 
subject  of  thought  with  the  Mound  Builders.  All  the  de- 
fensive remains  occur  in  the  neighborhood  of  water-courses, 
and  the  best  proof  of  the  skill  shown  in  the  choice  of  sites  is 
shown  by  the  number  of  flourishing  cities,  such  as  Cincin- 
nati, St.  Louis,  Newark,  Portsmouth,  Frankfort,  New  Mad- 
rid, and  many  others,  which  have  risen  in  the  same  situations 
in  modern  times.4 

1  The  ditch  instead  of  skirting  the  rampart  outside,  and  thus  multiplying  the 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  an  assailant,  is  generally  placed  inside.  Professor  An- 
drews quotes,  however,  an  external  moat  at  Lancaster  (Fairfield  County,  Ohio), 
but  he  adds  that  it  is  an  isolated  example.  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1877. 
If  a  stockade  was  placed  on  the  rampart,  the  ditch  would  add  an  obstacle  to  at- 
tempts at  digging  a  way  in,  while  if  placed  outside  it  would  facilitate  such  an 
attack. 

a  "  The  same  places,"  says  Dr.  Lapham,  speaking  of  the  mounds  of  Wiscon- 
sin, "  which  were  the  seat  of  aboriginal  population,  are  being  now  selected  as 
the  sites  of  embryo  towns  and  villages  by  men  of  different  race."  "Smith- 
sonian Contributions,"  vol,  VII.,  p.  64. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  89 

Bourneville,  twelve  miles  from  Chillicothe,  is  one  of  the 
most  curious  fortified  enclosures  of  Ohio.  It  occupies  the 
summit  of  a  steep  hill ;  the  walls — a  rare  eno.ugh  instance — 
are  of  stone,  built  up  without  cement,1  presenting  a  striking 
resemblance  with  the  ancient  pre-historic  forts  of  Belgium 
and  the  north  of  France.  The  closing  ridge  measures  more 
than  two  miles,  and  three  entrances  can  still  be  made  out, 
defended  by  mounds,  which  made  access  more  difficult.  In 
many  parts,  especially  near  the  entrances,  the  walls  seem  to 
have  been  subjected  to  the  action  of  a  fierce  fire,  which  has 
actually  baked  the  surface.  Basins  artificially  dug  out  sup- 
plied the  inhabitants  with  the  water  they  required.  On  part 
of  the  rampart  grow  gigantic  trees,  supposed  to  be  of  great 
age. 

Round  about  these  trees  can  be  made  out  rotting  trunks, 
the  remains  of  earlier  generations  which  have  slowly  perished 
after  gaining  their  maturity.  According  to  some  archaeolo- 
gists, centuries  have  passed  away  since  the  forest  usurped 
the  place  of  the  abode  of  man  ;  others  with  more  probability 
think  these  trees  are  less  venerable  than  is  generally  sup- 
posed. In  Wisconsin,  says  Dr.  Lapham,*  54  to  130  years  are 
required  for  a  tree  to  increase  one  foot  in  diameter.  Among 
those  actually  living  very  few  exceed  three  or  four  feet  in 
diameter.  Lapham  therefore  concludes  that  they  cannot 
date  from  much  earlier  than  the  sixteenth  century,  and  they 
are  probably  considerably  younger. 

Fort  Hill  affords  a  still  better  example  of  these  earth- 
works. This  fortress,  for  such  it  may  justly  be  called,  rises 
from  an  eminence  overlooking  the  little  river  of  Paint  Creek. 

1  The  Mound  Builders  used  the  materials  at  hand.  When  stones  were  abun- 
dant, they  piled  them  up  with  earth  to  make  their  walls,  but  these  stones  are 
never  quarried  or  dressed,  nor  are  they  ever  cemented  with  any  mortar  ;  several 
instances  may  be  quoted,  notably  a  stone  fort  on  the  Duck  River,  near  Man- 
chester, Tennessee,  in  which  the  walls  are  of  unworked  stones,  detached  from 
neighboring  rocks.  At  the  entrance  two  mounds  can  be  made  out,  which  are 
supposed  to  have  been  posts  of  observation. 

'"The  Antiquities  of  Wisconsin,"  "Smith.  Cont.,"  vol.  VII.  Southall, 
"  Recent  Origin  of  Man,"  p.  583. 


C/)  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

The  walls  enclose  an  area  of  1 1 1  acres.  Above  the  stream, 
which  formed  a  natural  defence,  they  are  hardly  four  feet 
high,  but  everywhere  else  the  height  is  six  feet,  and  they  are 
some  thirty-five  feet  thick.  Several  openings  made  entrance 
easy.  One  of  them  leads  to  an  enclosure  which  was  prob- 
ably square,  but  its  walls  have  been  in  a  great  measure  de- 
stroyed ;  no  trench  or  ditch  protects  them,  and  traces  of  a 
great  fire  can  easily  be  discerned.  In  this  second  enclosure 
Squier  places  the  dwellings  of  the  inhabitants,  built  of  un- 
burnt  bricks,  or  perhaps  mere  huts  covered  with  grass, 


FIG.  23.— Fort  Hill,  Ohio. 

branches  of  trees,  or  the  skins  of  animals  killed  in  the  chase. 
Within  the  fortifications  can  be  distinguished  two  enclosures 
— one  semicircular,  the  other  circular.  These  were  probably 
places  sacred  to  the  religious  rites,  or  to  the  councils  of  the 
chiefs.  All  this  is,  however,  mere  conjecture  ;  for  the  cus- 
toms, ceremonies,  and  mode  of  government  of  these  men 
can  only  be  inferred  from  the  very  scanty  historical  data 
relating  to  tribes  dwelling  much  further  south. 

One  of  the  most  curious  works  *  of  this  kind  is  situated  in 
Clarke  County,  Ohio.     It  is  a  fort  covering  an  area  of  only 

1  Cox,  "  A  remarkable  ancient  stone  fort  in  Clarke  County,  Ohio."  Am.  Ass., 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  1874. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  9 1 

eight  or  ten  acres,  and  built  at  the  top  of  a  hill  washed  on 
the  south  by  the  Ohio,  and  on  the  north  by  a  wide,  deep 
stream,  Fourteen  Mile  Creek,  which  flows  into  the  Ohio,  a 
short  distance  beyond.  This  hill,  which  is  of  conical  form, 
rises  280  feet  above  the  river,  and  on  that  side  presents 
almost  perpendicular  walls,  except  at  one  point,  where  there 
is  a  pretty  wide  fault,  the  importance  of  defending  which 
the  builders  of  the  fort  were  not  slow  to  see.  They  pro- 
tected it  therefore  with  a  wall,  nowhere  less  than  seventy- 
five  feet  high,  built  of  rough  stones  arranged  without  mortar 
or  cement  of  any  kind.  Inside,  the  traces  can  still  be  made 
out  of  a  number  of  conical  mounds  and  of  a  wide  and  deep 
ditch.  These  works  must  not  be  confounded  with  others 
situated  in  Ross  county,  and  known  under  the  name  of 
Clark's  Works.  The  latter  include  a  parallelogram  275  feet 
by  177 ;  and  on  the  right  of  this  parallelogram  a  square  cov- 
ering an  area  of  sixteen  acres.1  The  sides  are  eighty-two 
feet  long,  and  in  the  middle  of  each  of  them  an  entrance  can 
be  made  out,  defended  by  a  little  mound.  Inside,  accord- 
ing to  a  custom  to  which  we  shall  often  have  occasion  to 
refer,  rose  several  mounds  of  different  sizes. 

Many  .of  these  works  are  connected  with  each  other  with 
a  skill  which  may  well  surprise  us.  Squier  thinks  he  recog- 
nizes a  continuous  system  of  fortifications,  arranged  with 
great  intelligence,  stretching  diagonally  across  the  state  of 
Ohio,  from  the  sources  of  the  Alleghany  and  of  the  Susque- 
hanna  in  the  state  of  New  York  to  the  Wabash  River. 
Along  the  Big  Harpeth  River,  Tennessee,  earthworks  are 
very  numerous.11  The  line  of  the  Great  Miami  River,  one  of 
the  tributaries  of  the  Ohio,  is  defended  by  three  forts:  one 
at  its  mouth,  a  second  at  Colerain,  and  a  third  at  Hamilton. 
Beyond  this  last  point  other  works  extend  for  a  distance  of 
six  miles  along  the  river,  protecting  the  tributaries  of  the 

1  The  amount  of  earth  used  in  making  these  earthworks  is  estimated  at  three 
millions  of  cubic  feet.  Whittlesey  .  "  On  the  Weapons  and  Character  of  the 
Mound  Builders,"  Boston  Soc.  of  Natural  History,  vol.  I.,  p.  473. 

*  Dr.  Jones'  "Explorations  of  the  Aboriginal  Remains  of  Tennessee," 
Smithsonian  Contributions,  vol.  XXII.,  p.  4. 


92  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Great  Miami  on  the  north  and  west,  or  ranged  in  succession 
as  far  as  Dayton  and  Piqua,  so  as  to  complete  the  line  of  de- 
fence. All  these  points  are  connected  with  each  other  by 
isolated  mounds,  mostly  set  upon  hills  commanding  an  ex- 
tensive view.1  These  are  supposed,  with  reason,  to  have  been 
used  as  sentinel  stations  from  which  to  watch  the  move- 
ments of  the  enemy  or  to  transmit  pre-arranged  signals.* 

Fort  Ancient  is  forty-two  miles  from  Cincinnati.  Professor 
Locke,  who  was  the  first  to  describe  it,  estimates  the  quantity 
of  earth  used  in  its  construction  at  over  628,000  cubic  yards. 
It  is  built  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Little  Miami,  230  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  stream,  and  forms  behind  the  line  of 
defences,  to  which  we  have  referred,  a  central  citadel.  The 
length  of  the  enclosing  ridges  is  not  less  than  three  or  four 
miles,  and  the  walls,  where  they  have  resisted  the  ravages  of 
time,  are  nearly  twenty  feet  high.  Hosea  has  lately  re- 
peated an  observation  often  made,  that  the  outline  of  these 
walls  made  a  rough  sketch  of  the  continents  of  America. 
If  this  be  so  it  can  be  but  a  purely  accidental  coincidence 
quite  unworthy  of  any  serious  consideration.  The  Rev. 
S.  D.  Peet,  taking  up  an  entirely  different  point  of  view,  sees 
in  these  outlines  a  struggle  between  two  huge  serpents,3 
another  flight  of  imagination  difficult  to  follow.  What  is 
really  of  importance  is  the  great  amount  of  work  done  by  the 
builders,  and  the  skill  they  showed  in  their  works  of  defence. 

We  must  not  omit  to  mention  the  ruins  of  Aztalan4 
situated  on  an  arm  of  the  Rock  River,  Wisconsin.  They 

1  The  great  Miamisburgh  mound  on  the  Ohio  is  one  of  the  best  examples  we 
can  cite.  It  is  sixty-eight  feet  high  and  the  circumference  of  the  base  is  not 
less  than  862  feet.  (Short  :  "  The  North  Americans  of  Antiquity,"  p.  52). 
Lookout  Mountain,  near  Circleville,  with  its  lofty  mound,  must  have  served 
the  same  purpose. 

9  Force  :  "A  quelle  Race  appartenaient  les  Mound  Builders"  ;  Cong,  des 
Amer.,  Luxembourg,  1877,  vol.  I.,  p.  125.  Rev.  S.  D.  Peet  :  "The  Military 
Architecture,"  Am.  antiq,,  Jan.  1881. 

1  American  Antiquarian,  April,  1878,  March,  1880. 

4  Milwaukee  Advertiser,  1837  ;  Silliman's  American  Journal  of  Science,  vol. 
XLIV.  ;  Lapham :  "Antiquities  of  Wisconsin,"  p.  41,  plates,  XXXIV.  and 
XXXV. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  93 

were  discovered  in  1836  by  Hyer,  who  gave  them  the  name 
they  bear  in  memory  of  an  old  tradition  of  the  Mexicans, 
who  make  out  that  their  ancestors  came  from  Aztalan  *  in  the 
North.  The  characteristic  feature  of  these  ruins  is  an  en- 
closure of  earthworks  forming  three  sides  of  an  irregular 
parallelogram,  of  which  the  rivers  shut  in  the  fourth 
side.  They  present  considerable  analogy  to  those  of 
Ohio,  but  we  do  not  find  in  them  the  regularity  which  is 
generally  so  striking  in  the  latter.  The  angles  are  not  right 
angles  ;  the  northern  side  is  600  feet  long,  the  southern  684, 
while  the  western  wall  is  more  than  double  that  length. 
The  width  of  the  walls  is  nearly  twenty-five  feet,  but  they  have 
crumbled  away  to  so  great  an  extent  that  it  is  impossible  to 
decide  upon  their  original  height.  The  present  height 
varies  from  about  one  foot  to  three  yards  and  a  half. 

We  must  note  one  rare  and  interesting  peculiarity  ;  the 
walls  are  reinforced  at  equal  distances  with  projecting  curves 
or  bastions.  Finally,  at  the  southwest  angle  there  are  two 
little  enclosures  which  we  may  if  we  like  call  outposts.  All 
these  walls  were  constructed  of  earth  mixed  with  grass  and 
rushes,  and  then  subjected  in  various  parts  to  great  heat, 
doubtless  with  a  view  to  strengthen  their  cohesive  proper- 
ties. This  is  probably  the  reason  why  various  travellers  have 
stated  that  the  walls  of  Aztalan  were  built  of  brick.  We 
can  now  affirm  to  the  contrary. 

In  walking  round  the  inside  of  the  enclosure  it  is  still 
easy  to  make  out  a  considerable  number  of  mounds.  Some 
are  truncated  pyramids  rising  in  successive  tiers  ;  others  are 
tumuli.  One  of  the  latter  has  been  excavated  and  two  skele- 
tons were  brought  to  light.  It  was  observed  that  the 
corpses  had  been  placed  in  a  sitting  or  doubled-up  posture. 

1  The  name  of  Aztalan  is  derived  from  two  Mexican  words  :  Atl,  water,  and 
An,  near  to.  In  Mexican  traditions  Aztalan,  Culhuacan,  and  Aquilasco  were 
the  towns  the  people  of  Mexico  inhabited  before  their  migration  in  the  direction 
of  Anahuac.  (Bancroft,  vol.  V.,  pp.  156,  305.)  According  to  the  Abbe 
Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  Aztalan  is  situated  northwest  of  California.  ("  Hist, 
des  Nat.  Civilisees,"  vol.  II.,  p.  292.)  We  may  observe  that  nothing  is  more 
uncertain  than  such  tradition. 


94  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

The  bones  unfortunately  crumbled  to  dust  at  the  very  mo- 
ment of  discovery,  so  that  no  satisfactory  examination  was 
possible. 

Most  archaeologists  consider  Aztalan  to  have  been  a 
fortified  post.  Lapham  alone  remarks,  and  his  observa- 
tion is  not  without  justice,  that  the  situation  of  these  build- 
ings, overlooked  as  it  is  from  every  side,  would  in  that  case 
have  been  very  badly  chosen,  and  at  complete  variance  with 
all  the  traditions  of  the  builders.  In  any  case,  whether  the 
ruins  be  those  of  a  town  or  merely  of  a  fortified  enclosure, 
they  must  have  been  quickly  abandoned,  for  excavations 
have  yielded  no  remains  proving  the  long  residence  of 
man. 

Putnam,  one  of  the  most  learned  of  American  archaeolo- 
gists, describes1  at  Greenwood,  near  Lebanon,  Tennessee, 
some  earthworks  forming  a  true  fortification.  He  was  able 
to  make  out  the  position  of  three  entrances,  and  inside  the  en- 
closure numerous  sepulchral  tumuli  and  a  lofty  mound  form- 
ing a  truncated  cone  with  very  steep  walls  measuring  fifteen 
feet  high  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base. 
At  two  different  heights  excavations  have  yielded  calcined 
stones,  cinders,  and  burnt  bones,  evident  proofs  of  huge  fires, 
either  for  offering  sacrifices  or  for  funeral  rites.  The  dwell- 
ings of  the  men  who  made  these  earthworks  must  have  been 
circular  huts,  of  which  some  traces  can  still  be  made  out. 
The  burial-places  were  generally  at  a  distance  from  the 
homes,  but  with  touching  sentiment  the  bodies  of  children 
were  interred  close  to  the  hearths  of  their  parents.  Putnam 
considers  the  people  of  Greenwood  to  have  been  one  of  the 
most  forward  races  inhabiting  North  America.  They  tilled 
the  ground  ;  they  did  not  burn  their  dead  as  did  the  men  of 
Ohio  ;  their  pottery  and  their  ornaments  are  truly  artistic, 
and  we  find  amongst  their  relics  copper  from  Lake  Superior 
and  marine  shells.  Seven  perforated  pearls  were  picked  up 
in  the  grave  of  a  child,  so  that  trade  was  not  unknown 
to  them.  All  this  speaks  of  progressing  culture  but  not 

1  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1878,  vol.  II.,  p.  339. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  95 

of  any  thing  beyond  the  standard  of  the  modern   Indian. 

Sandy-Woods  settlement,1  Missouri,  includes  nine  tumuli 
and  a  considerable  number  of  circular  excavations  surrounded 
with  walls  and  with  an  external  trench.  The  present  height 
of  the  walls  varies  from  two  feet  to  three  and  one  half  feet, 
and  they  are  seven  feet  wide  at  the  base.  The  trench  is 
three  feet  at  its  deepest  part,  and  seven  feet  wide.  This 
trench  communicates  on  the  east  with  a  marsh ;  so  it  has 
been  supposed  that  it  was  intended  to  supply  the  inhabi- 
tants with  the  water  they  required,  and  that  the  wall  was 
intended  rather  as  a  protection  from  inundations  than  as  a 
defence  against  invaders. 

The  most  important  of  the  tumuli  of  which  we  have  just 
spoken  is  of  rectangular  form.  The  northern  and  southern 
faces  are  two  hundred  and  forty-six  feet  long,  the  eastern 
and  western  only  one  hundred  and  eighteen  feet.  The 
height  is  more  than  sixteen  feet  on  the  north,  and  nineteen 
feet  on  the  south.  The  top  forms  a  platform  fairly  easy  of 
access,  which  measures  one  hundred  and  eight  feet  by 
fifty-one,  which  platform  is  covered  by  numerous  fragments 
of  badly  baked  clay,  somewhat  like,  bricks  of  coarse  manu- 
facture, and  nearly  all  of  them  bearing  impressions  of  grass 
or  straw,  mixed  with  the  adobe  before  baking.  Excavations 
of  this  mound  yielded  no  results.  Those  in  other  mounds 
have  been  more  fruitful,  especially  those  in  two  circular 
mounds  devoted  to  burial  purposes,  which  must  have  con- 
tained from  one  to  two  hundred  skeletons  in  each  stratum. 
The  first  layer  of  skeletons  was  arranged  on  a  level  with  the 
original  soil,  the  second  about  a  foot  above  it.  They  were 
so  much  decayed  that  an  exact  statement  of  their  numbers 
cannot  be  made.  Some  of  these  skeletons  had  been  doubled 
up,  others  were  in  a  squatting  posture,  but  the  greater  num- 
ber lay  stretched  on  their  backs  or  stomachs,  or  lay  on  their 
sides.  It  has  been  remarked  that  the  fact  that  the  earth 
with  which  they  wrere  covered  did  not  belong  to  the  spot  in 

*W.  P.  Potter  :  "  Arch.  Remains  in  S.  E.  Missouri."  Saint  Louis  Acad.  of 
Sciences,  1880. 


96  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

which  they  were  found,  but  must  have  been  brought  there 
from  a  distance  (not  necessarily  great)  bears  witness  to  the 
respect  shown  by  these  men  to  their  dead,  and  the  im- 
portance they  attached  to  funeral  rites.  Vessels  and  broken 
pieces  of  pottery  placed  near  the  corpses  were  numerous ; 
from  eight  hundred  to  one  thousand  fragments  have  been 
collected. 

As  at  Greenwood  circular  trenches  marked  the  site  of 
dwellings.  They  are  about  two  feet  deep  by  twenty-eight 
feet  in  diameter.  The  presence,  in  some  particular  spots,  of 
heaps  of  burnt  clay,  cinders,  fragments  of  charcoal,  and  the 
calcined  bones  of  animals,  indicate  the  hearths.  They  were 
generally  in  the  centre  of  the  habitation,  and,  as  is  the  cus- 
tom among  numerous  savage  tribes,  the  smoke  escaped 
through  a  hole  made  in  the  roof. 

All  the  trenches  of  which  we  have  just  spoken  were  grouped 
irregularly  within  the  enclosure.  Every  one  chose  the  site 
that  best  suited  his  convenience,  needs,  or  pleasure,  and 
there  erected  his  home. 

On  the  branches  of  Little  River  are  many  settlements,  in 
general  resembling  those  ave  have  just  described.  There  is  an 
elliptical  mound  surrounded  by  a  wall  and  trench.  This 
mound  measures  one  hundred  and  ten  by  seventy  feet.  It  is 
eleven  feet  high.  Farther  on  in  the  Lewis  Prairie  rises  the  so- 
called  Mound  group  where  the  traces  of  a  double  wall  have 
been  made  out.  A  religious  society  utilized  one  of  the 
mounds  of  Lewis  Prairie  on  which  to  build  a  church,  and  at 
that  time  numerous  bones  appear  to  have  been  dispersed,  so 
that  Professor  Swallow's  later  excavations  were  barren  of 
results.  In  other  places  are  mounds,  banks  sometimes  of  great 
length,  intended  to  defend  the  approaches  to  a  river  or  a 
spring,  and  excavations  marking  the  sites  of  ancient  habi- 
tations. 

In  fact,  in  many  different  places  the  earthworks  of  man 
have  resisted  time  and  preserved  to  the  present  day  proofs 
of  his  existence. 

If  we  leave  the  United  States  we  may  refer  to  a  series  of 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  97 

trenches  extending  for  several  miles  near  Juigalpa  in  Nica- 
ragua.1 Their  arrangement  is  peculiar  (fig.  24).  The  gen- 
eral width  varies  from  three  to  four  yards,  and  at  equal  dis- 
tances occur  oval  reservoirs,  the  axis  of  which  reaches  about 
twenty-six  yards. 

Two  and  four  mounds  occur  alternately  in  each  of  these 
reservoirs.  We  are  ignorant  alike  of  the  use  of  these  works 
and  of  the  people  who  executed  them. 

It  was  desirable  to  mention  these  trenches,  which  are 
different  from  any  thing  else  of  the  kind  reported  from  Cen- 
tral America.  We  shall  not,  however,  multiply  useless  repe- 
titions, and  we  will  content  ourselves  with  adding  that  if 
fortifications  are  less  common  southwest  of  the  Missouri, 
they  are  numerous  enough  in  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  and  Indiana. 
In  the  last-named  state  and  in  Illinois  their  form  is  gen- 


FlG.  24. — Trenches  at  Juigalpa,  Nicaragua. 

erally  square,  in  Iowa  and  Missouri  it  is  often  triangular; 
but  everywhere  we  notice  great  similarity  in  their  structure 
and  the  occurrence  of  a  central  mound.  On  all  the  rivers 
which  flow  from  the  south  and  empty  into  Lake  Erie  or 
Ontario  numerous  forts  are  met  with ;  but  they  are  irregular, 
and  enclose  none  of  the  mounds  so  characteristic  of  the 
others  we  have  described. 

The  great  amount  of  labor  involved  in  the  erection  of 
their  fortifications,  bearing  in  mind  the  resources  the  builders 
had  at  their  command,  justifies  us  in  looking  upon  the 
mounds  as  intended  to  be  permanent,  and  probably,  in  case 
of  the  larger  ones,  as  having  been  constructed  by  slow 
degrees.  General  Harrison,  one  of  the  early  Presidents  of 
the  United  States,-  was  indeed  justified  in  the  opinion  he 
expressed  in  speaking  to  the  Historical  Society  of  Ohio,1 

1  Boyle  :   "  A  Ride  Across  the  Continent,"  vol.  I.,  p.  212. 
"  Transactions  Hist.  Soc.  of  Ohio,  vol.  I.,  ;>•  263. 


98  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

that  these  fortifications  were  not  erected  for  a  defence  from 
a  sudden  invasion,  for  the  height  of  the  walls  and  the  solidity 
of  their  construction  show  that  the  danger  they  were  to 
guard  against  was  ever  present.  General  Harrison  added : 
"  The  three  mounds  that  I  have  examined,  those  of  Marietta, 
Cincinnati,  and  that  at  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Miami,  par- 
ticularly the  latter,  have  a  military  character  stamped  upon 
them  which  cannot  be  mistaken.  War  and  struggle  have  ever 
been  the  sad  heritage  of  humanity,  and  the  New  World  was 
not  likely  to  be  more  exempt  from  them  than  the  Old." 

It  is  no  less  certain  that  similar  works  were  far  from 
uncommon  among  the  Indians.  They  were  described  by 
all  the  earlier  explorers,  notably  by  the  chronicler  of  De 
Soto's  expedition,  who  saw  them  in  the  South  actually  occu- 
pied by  the  existing  tribes.  An  early  traveller  tells  us  that 
he  noted  one  general  mode  of  fortification,  which  was  a  cir- 
cumvallation  formed  of  palisades  from  twelve  to  fifteen  feet 
high,  with  openings  through  which  the  besieged  could  shoot 
their  arrows.  In  1855  an  intrenchment  was  noticed  erected 
on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri,  near  Council  Bluffs,  by  an 
Indian  tribe,  the  Arikarees.  This  intrenchment,  in  accord- 
ance with  a  constant  tradition  of  their  race,  was  made  of 
trunks  of  trees  piled  one  upon  the  other.1  Catlin  describes 
a  large  Mandan  village,  in  which  the  inhabitants  were  pro- 
tected with  palisades.8  The  forts  attacked  by  Champlain  in 
1609  were  defended  by  stakes  driven  into  the  ground  and 
bound  together  with  branches  of  trees  and  ropes  made  of 
bark  fibre.  Similar  fortifications  were  always  met  with  by  the 
French  in  their  long  struggles  with  the  Iroquois.  There  is  little 
doubt  that  most  of  the  encircling  walls  of  the  fortified  enclo- 
sures of  the  mounds  were  surmounted  by  some  sort  of  stock- 
ade, the  remains  of  which  have  been  occasionally  noticed. 

Some  earthworks,  occurring  chiefly  in  the  western  states, 
have  been  thought  to  show  from  the  mode  of  their  con- 

1  Am.  Ass.,  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  1855. 

'"Illustrations  of   the  Manners,   Customs,   and  Conditions  of  the   North 
American  Indians,"  London,  1866,  2  vols. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  99 

struction  that  they  were  not  intended  for  defence.  Forts 
were  erected  in  places  naturally  indicated,  often  on  heights 
all  but  inaccessible.  The  enclosures,  on  the  contrary,  to 
which  Squier  and  others  wrongly  give  the  title  of  sacred,  are 
on  the  banks  of  rivers,  in  valleys  overlooked  by  the  neigh- 
boring hills,  serious  drawbacks  which  the  Mound  Builders 
avoided  in  the  erection  of  their  purely  defensive  forts. 

These  enclosures,  which  were  in  all  probability  village  de- 
fences, by  whatever  name  we  may  call  them,  are  always  of 
regular  form,  square  or  circular,  more  rarely  elliptical  or 
polygonal.  All  the  figures  are  perfect,  all  the  angles  are 
right  angles,  all  the  sides  are  equal.  The  men  who  built 
them  certainly  understood  the  art  of  measuring  surfaces  and 
angles.  The  walls  vary  in  height,  and  their  original  eleva- 
tion can  only  now  be  guessed  at.  We  may  add  that  these 
works  are  so  large,  their  arrangement  so  varied,  and  their 
numbers  so  great,  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  give  an  exact 
idea  of  them.  A  few  examples  will  help  us  to  do  so. 

The  most  remarkable  group  is  probably  that  of  Newark, 
in  the  Scioto  Valley.  It  includes  an  octagon  covering  an 
area  of  fifty  acres,  a  square  of  twenty  acres,  and  two  circles 
of  twenty  and  thirty  acres  respectively.  The  walls  of  the 
larger  circle  still  measure  twelve  feet  high  by  fifty  feet  wide 
at  their  base ;  they  are  protected  by  an  internal  trench  seven 
feet  deep  by  thirty-five  feet  wide.  According  to  a  survey 
made  by  Colonel  Whittlesey,  the  whole  of  these  buildings 
occupy  an  area  of  twelve  square  miles,  and  the  length  of  the 
series  of  mounds  exceeds  two  miles.  The  large  entrances 
are  defended  by  slopes  thirty-five  feet  high,  trenches  thirteen 
feet  deep,  passages  forming  regular  labyrinths  adding  to  the 
difficulties  of  access  ;  mounds  of  strange  form,  one  of  which 
resembles  a  bird's  foot,  with  the  middle  claw  155  feet  long, 
and  those  on  either  side  1 10  feet  long,  all  astonish  the  ex- 
plorer. On  these  abandoned  ruins,  forest-trees  have  grown 
to  a  great  age  ;  others  preceded  them,  their  gigantic  trunks, 
now  in  a  state  of  decomposition,  bearing  witness  to  their 
existence.  Man,  actuated  by  motives  unknown  to  us,  fled 


100 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA, 


from  the  scenes  where  every  thing  testifies  to  his  power  and 
his  intelligence  ;  the  vigorous  vegetation  of  nature  is  the 
only  life  which  has  endured. 

At  Chillicothe '  we  meet  with  a  circle  more  than  one  hun- 
dred feet  in  diameter  and  an  octagon  of  somewhat  smaller 
dimensions.  The  walls  of  the  octagon,  like  those  at  Newark, 
are  from  ten  to  twelve  feet  high,  by  fifty  feet  thick  at  the 
base.  The  height  of  the  walls  of  the  circle,  partially  de- 


FIG.  25. — Group  at  Liberty,  Ohio. 

stroyed,  is  nowhere  more  than  four  and  a  half  to  five  feet. 
All  round  these  enclosures  great  numbers  of  small  circles, 
scarcely  above  the  level  of  the  ground,  can  still  be  made 
out.  At  Hopetown,  near  Chillicothe,  there  are  a  circle  and 
a  square  adjoining  each  other  ;  together  they  cover  an  area 
of  exactly  twenty  acres. 

We  give  a  drawing  of  a  group  somewhat  resembling  the 
one  we  have  just  described,  and  which  can  be  more  clearly 
examined  (fig.  25).  It  is  situated  near  Liberty,  Ohio,  and 

1  Squier  :  "  Anc.  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  pi.  XVI, 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  IOI 

consists  of  two  circles  and  a  square.  The  diameter  of  the 
large  circle  is  1,700  feet,  and  it  covers  an  area  of  forty  acres  ; 
the  diameter  of  the  little  one  is  500  feet ;  the  area  covered  by 
the  square,  each  side  of  which  is  1,080  feet  long,  is  twenty- 
seven  acres.  The  walls  are  not  connected  with  a  trench, 
and,  contrary  to  the  custom  generally  followed,  the  earth  of 
which  they  are  composed  is  taken  from  trenches  cut  within 
the  circle.1 

Circleville,  Ohio,  takes  its  name  from  structures  of  this 
kind  ;  a  square  and  circle  touching  one  another.  The  side 
of  the  square  measures  875  feet  ;  and  the  diameter  of  the 
circle  is  985  feet. 

Eight  openings,  one  at  each  angle  and  in  the  middle  of 
each  side,  give  access  to  the  square  mound  ;  each  of  these 
was  defended  by  a  mound,  and  the  circle  was  surrounded  by 
a  double  wall.  This  group  has  already  been  greatly  muti- 
lated ;  many  others  have  unfortunately  shared  its  fate,  and 
we  must  hasten  to  study  these  last  witnesses  of  a  by-gone 
condition  of  things,  for  the  plow  invades  them  every  day, 
and  no  relic  of  this  remote  past  can  long  resist  the  necessi- 
ties of  modern  life. 

An  enclosure  built  of  stone,  near  Black  Run,  Ross  county, 
Ohio,  merits  special  notice.  It  is  of  elliptical  form,  the  large 
axis  measuring  246  feet,  and  the  small  one  167  feet.  A 
single  opening  gives  access  to  it,  and  in  front  of  this  five 
walls  stretch  out  in  the  form  of  a  fan,  but  there  is  absolutely 
nothing  to  explain  their  purpose. 

The  number  and  extent  of  these  enclosures,  with  the 
great  area  they  cover,  forbids  us  to  look  upon  them  as  tem- 
ples. We  know  of  no  worship,  ancient  or  modern,  of  no 
rite,  with  which  they  can  be  connected.  It  is  more  reasona- 
ble to  suppose  them  to  have  been  fortified  villages,  accord- 
ing to  a  usage  met  with  in  various  parts  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  by  the  first  explorers.  According  to  Ferguson,  the 
small  enclosures  so  often  joined  on  to  the  large  one,  was  the 
chief's  dwelling ;  the  tents  of  his  companions  and  those  of 

1  Bancroft,  vol.  IV.,  p.  759  ;  Short,  p.  48. 


IO2 


PRE-HIS  TOXIC  A  M ERIC  A . 


the  members  of  his  family  having  been  grouped  about  his. 
Squier  has  given  the  name  of  temples  to  some  truncated 
pyramids,  the  summits  of  which  are  reached  by  inclined 
planes.  Some  of  them  were  doubtless  so  used.  Occasion- 
ally these  pyramids  are  in  terraces  or  successive  stories,  but 
whatever  their  form,  whether  they  be  round,  oval,  polygonal, 
or  square,  they  always  end  in  a  platform  at  the  top.  The 


FIG.  26. — Truncated  mound  at  Marietta  (Ohio). 

early  explorers  ]  found  the  houses  of  the  chiefs  in  fortified 
villages  always  built  on  such  mounds,  others  of  which  were 
used  for  religious  purposes.  Hence  the  name  by  which  they 
are  known.  These  mounds  are  very  numerous  at  Chillicothe, 
Portsmouth,  Marietta,  (fig.  26),  and  generally  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  State  of  Ohio.  They  are  also  met  with  in  Ken- 

1  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega  reports  that  in  Florida  the  chiefs  used  such  mounds 
as  sites  for  their  dwellings.  He  mentions  one  no  less  than  1,800  feet  in  cir- 
cumference. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  103 

tucky,  Missouri,  Tennessee,  and  the  southern  states.  They 
are  more  rare  in  the  North,  though  they  occur  as  far  as  the 
shores  of  Lake  Superior,  which  seems  to  have  been  the  ex- 
treme northern  limit  of  the  mounds. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  these  mounds  is  without 
doubt  that  of  Cahokia,  Illinois.1  It  rises  in  the  centre  of 
sixty  others,  of  heights  varying  from  thirty  to  sixty  feet,  and 
covering  an  area  of  six  acres,  according  to  Hass,  but  double 
that  extent  according  to  Putnam.  The  great  pyramid  of 
Cheops,  we  may  remark  by  the  way,  covers  an  area  of  thir- 
teen acres. 

The  great  mound  overlooks  all  the  others,  and  attains,  in 
four  successive  terraces,  a  height  of  ninety-one  feet ;  its  base 
measures  560  feet  by  720 ;  the  platform  covering  it,  146  by 
310,  and  it  is  estimated  that  25,0x30,000  of  cubic  feet  of  earth 
were  used  in  its  construction.*  Of  course  many  years  and 
thousands  of  workmen  were  needed  for  carrying  on  and  com- 
pleting so  considerable  a  work. 

The  large  mound  was  surmounted  by  a  smaller  one  of 
pyramidal  form,  which  may  have  been  ten  feet  high,  and 
was  destroyed  a  few  years  ago.  In  demolishing  it  were 
found  many  human  bones,  bits  of  chert,  arrow-points,  frag- 
ments of  coarsely  made  and  badly  burnt  pottery,  remains  of 
offerings  or  of  sacrifices.  The  approaches  of  this  mound, 
which  evidently  played  an  important  part  in  the  history  of 
these  people,  were  defended  by  four  square  mounds,  facing 
east,  west,  and  southwest.  These  mounds  vary  in  height 
from  twenty  to  thirty  feet,  and  on  two  of  them  had  been 
erected  conical  pyramids,  resembling  pretty  closely  those 
surmounting  the  central  mound. 

The  Seltzertown  mound  is  hardly  less  imposing  than  that 
of  Cahokia.  The  base  is  a  parallelogram  six  hundred  feet  by 

1 W.  De  Hass,  Am.  Ass.,  Chicago  1867;  Putnam,  "Report,  Peabody 
Museum,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  471.  etc.  Putnam  gives  the  plan  of  Cahokia  as  it 
is  and  the  restored  plans  .  It  is  known  under  the  name  of  Monks'  Mound, 
because  Breckenridge,  who  visited  it  in  1811,  located  by  mistake  a  Trappist 
convent  on  it,  which  was  really  on  a  neighboring  mound. 

*  Force,  quoted  above,  says  20,000,000  of  cubic  feet  only. 


104  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

four  hundred  feet  ;  its  height  is  forty  feet,  and  the  platform, 
which  is  reached  by  a  flight  of  steps,  is  no  less  than  three  acres 
in  extent.1  On  this  platform  rise  three  conical  mounds,  the 
largest  of  which  is  also  forty  feet  high,  which  gives  to  the 
structure  as  a  whole  a  height  of  eighty  feet  above  the 
ground.  This  mound  presents  this  peculiarity:  the  whole 
of  the  northern  side,  that  most  exposed  to  inclemency  of 
weather,  is  strengthened  by  a  wall a  two  feet  thick,  made,  as 
is  very  common  amongst  the  Mexicans,  of  adobes,  or  mud 
bricks  dried  in  the  sun.  Some  of  these  bricks  have  retained 
to  this  day  the  marks  of  the  fingers  of  the  workmen  who 
made  them. 

At  New  Madrid,  a  mound  of  considerable  dimensions  is 
surrounded  by  a  trench  five  feet  deep  by  ten  feet  wide ;  and 
the  explorers  of  this  county  report  having  found,  among 
the  ruins  bordering  the  rivers  and  streams  tributary  to  the 
Missouri,  a  mound  of  the  form  of  a  parallelogram,  rising 
above  every  thing  near  it.  Professor  Swallow  describes  one 
of  these  mounds,  which  he  considers  very  ancient,  as  meas- 
uring nine  hundred  feet  in  circumference  at  its  base  and  five 
hundred  and  seventy  feet  at  the  summit.  The  most  interest- 
ing fact  revealed  by  the  excavation  is  the  existence  of  an  in- 
terior chamber,  formed  of  poles  of  elm  or  cypress,  set  like  the 
rafters  in  the  roof  of  a  house.  The  rafters  were  tied  with 
reeds  and  covered  inside  and  out  with  a  plaster  of  marl.  The 
outside  plastering  was  left  rough,  but  the  inside  was  smoothed 
carefully  and  coated  with  red  ochre.3  Excavations  have 
yielded  syenite  disks  and  numerous  pieces  of  potter}',  among 
others" a  vessel  moulded  on  a  human  skull,  which  cannot  be 
taken  out  without  breaking  it  (fig.  27).  A  sycamore  twenty- 
eight  feet,  a  nut-tree  twenty-six  feet,  and  an  oak  seventeen 
feet  in  circumference,  overshadow  one  of  these  mounds. 

1  Squier  and  Davis  :   "  Anc.  Mon.  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  p.  117.    Short : 
"  The  North  Americans,"  p.  72.     Foster:   "  Preh.  Races,"  p.  112. 

2  Professor  Cox  has  discovered  near  Helena  (Phillips  county,  Arkansas)  a 
similar  wall ;    only  the    clay  instead  of    being  mixed  with  dry  grass  encloses 
numerous  fragments  of  reeds. 

*  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1875,  p.  17. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  1 05 

There  is  no  doubt  that  these  trees  are  of  later  date  than  the 
erection  of  the  mounds ;  but  how  much  later  than  that  erec- 
tion was  the  seed  from  which  these  large  trees  were  to  spring 
flung  by  a  chance  wind  upon  these  piles  of  earth? 

We  have  spoken  of  the  trench  protecting  the  mound  of 
New  'Madrid  ;  in  other  cases  the  protection  consists  of  walls 
of  considerable  height  defending  the  approaches.  At  Ma- 
tontiple  a  mound  of  considerable  dimensions,  and  largely 
made  up  of  baked  earth,  was  surrounded  by  a  circle  of 
smaller  mounds.  At  the  junction  of  the  Ohio  and  the 
Muskingum  are  to  be  seen  two  parallelograms,  the  walls  of 


FlG.  27. — Skull  enclosed  in  an  earthenware  pot. 

which  are  twenty-seven  feet  wide  at  their  base.  In  the 
middle  of  the  larger  one  rise  four  pyramids,  the  summit  of 
three  of  which  is  reached  by  a  flight  of  steps,  whilst  the  fourth 
is  inaccessible.  Two  embankments  start  from  the  single 
entrance  of  the  enclosure,  which  is  on  the  west,  and  run 
down  to  the  river,  the  approaches  to  which  they  would 
appear  to  guard.  On  this  account  General  Harrison  has 
classed  Matontiple  among  fortifications,  but  the  absence  of 
a  ditch  has  led  Squier  to  form  a  different  opinion. 

Let  us  now  proceed  with  a  rapid  and  very  incomplete  enu- 
meration. One  mound  rises  from  the  banks  of  the  Etowah. 
It  is  of  irregular  form  ;  it  covers  three  acres  of  ground  at  its 


106  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

base,  and  it  is  flanked  by  two  smaller  mounds,  representing 
truncated  cones  with  steep  walls.1  Messier  Mound  (Georgia) 
is  erected  on  a  natural  eminence.  The  height  of  the  arti- 
ficial mound  is  fifty-five  feet,  and  the  platform  at  its  summit 
measures  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  by  sixty-six  feet.  There 
is  no  road  up  to  this  platform,  and  it  is  difficult  to  climb 
to  the  top.8  Messrs.  Bertrand  and  W.  Mackinley  *  also 
speak  of  several  conical  mounds  in  the  state  of  Georgia, 
made  up  of  strata,  one  on  top  of  the  other,  perhaps  dating 
•from  different  periods.  The  pyramid  of  Koleemokee  is 
especially  remarkable  ;  it  is  no  less  than  ninety-five  feet  high. 
We  must  also  mention  a  mound  twenty-three  feet  high,  situ- 
ated in  the  Cumberland  Valley,  Tennessee;  excavations 
yielded  neither  bones,  implements,  nor  pottery,  but  at  a  cer- 
tain depth  stones  were  met  with  arranged  regularly,  and 
which  may  reasonably  be  compared  with  the  cromlechs  of 
Ireland  or  of  Wales.  Recent  discoveries  have  brought  to 
light  a  large  tumulus  twenty-five  miles  from  Olympia,  Wash- 
ington Territory;  and,  if  the  accounts  of  travellers  can  be 
trusted,  its  height  is  three  hundred  feet,  far  exceeding  that 
of  any  other  mound  yet  found.  There  is  a  single  truncated 
pyramid  eighty-eight  feet  high  at  Florence,  Alabama,  which 
deserves  mention  on  account  of  the  regularity  of  its  construc- 
tion. Each  side  is  arranged  with  a  precision  astonishing  as 
the  work  of  people  whom  we  have,  till  quite  lately,  looked 
upon  as  wrapped  in  barbarism. 

We  have  followed  the  descriptions  of  American  writers, 
who  have  had  the  advantage  of  writing  and  studying  on  the 
spot  these  monuments  of  a  by-gone  time.  Whilst  accepting 
their  classification,  however,  in  default  of  a  better,  we  must 
repeat  that  with  regard  to  the  "temples,"  as  well  as  the 
"  sacred  enclosures,"  there  is  no  proof  that  they  were  used 
for  religious  rites,  and  it  is  more  probable  that  these  rites 

1  Whittlesey :  "  The  Great  Mound  on  Etowah  River,"  Amer.  Ass.,  Indian- 
apolis, 1871.  Traces  of  a  trench  are  supposed  to  have  been  made  out  round 
the  mound  ;  according  to  Short  (p.  82),  its  height  is  seventy-five  feet. 

'Bancroft,  vol.  IV.,  p.  267. 

8  "  Travels  in  North  America,"  p.  223. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  IO7 

were  solemnized  on  the  altars  of  which  we  are  about  to 
speak. 

The  mounds  intended  as  altars  are  some  of  them  square, 
some  rectangular,  and  others  circular  or  elliptical.  Invari- 
ably situated  in  an  enclosure,  they  frequently  consist  of  hori- 
zontal layers  of  gravel,  earth,  and  sand.  Professor  Andrews ' 
has  proved  that  this  stratification  is  not,  as  hitherto  supposed, 
a  universal  custom.  These  materials  cover  an  altar  always 
on  a  level  with  the  soil,  and  made  of  flat  stones,  or  of  clay 
hardened  in  the  sun  or  by  fire.  Dr.  Jones  mentions  an  adobe 
altar  in  Tennessee,  on  which  it  is  easy  to  make  out  the  marks 
of  the  reeds  upon  which  it  had  been  moulded.  In  excep- 
tional cases  roughly  made  coffins  of  unhewn  stone  are 
arranged  round  the  altar.  The  size  of  these  altars  varies  ad 
infinitum  :  some  are  but  of  a  few  inches  square,  others  on  the 
contrary  are  fifty  feet  long  by  fifteen  feet  wide.  All  bear 
traces  of  exposure  to  violent  heat,  and  excavations  seem  to 
show  that  the  objects  offered  up  to  the  gods  to  whom  these 
altars  were  sacred  had  to  be  purified  in  the  flames  at  the 
time  of  sacrifice. 

Under  one  of  these  altars  have  been  found  thousands  of 
hyaline  quartz,  obsidian,  and  manganese  arrow-points,  of  ad- 
mirable workmanship.  All  were  mutilated  and  broken  by 
the  action  of  the  fire,  and  it  was  only  after  a  long  search  that 
three  or  four  were  found  intact.  Under  another  mound  were 
found  more  than  six  hundred  hatchets,  presenting  a  certain 
analogy  with  the  European  hatchets,  of  St.  Acheul.  These 
hatchets  averaged  seven  inches  long  by  four  inches  wide.1 
Under  a  third  mound  were  exhumed  two  hundred  calcined 
pipes  and  some  copper  ornaments,  the  latter,  in  many  cases, 
covered  with  a  thin  plating  of  silver,  all  distorted  by  the  fierce- 
ness of  the  heat  to  which  they  had  been  subjected  ;  and  lastly, 
under  other  mounds,  were  discovered  fragments  of  pottery, 
obsidian  implements,  ivory  and  bone  needles,  so  broken  up 
that  their  original  length  could  not  be  determined,  and  scroll 

1  "  The  Native  Americans,"  p.  83,  note  2. 

*  Squier  :  "  Anc.  Mon.  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  p.  213. 


io8 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


work  cut  out  of  very  thin  plates  of  mica,  and  pierced  with 
regular  holes  by  which  it  could  be  suspended. 

These  differences  between  the  objects  dug  up  near  the 
different  altars  are  important.  Some  have  yielded  spear- 
heads and  pipes  ;  others,  fragments  of  pottery  and  needles ; 
others,  again,  only  chert  with  no  marks  of  human  workman- 
ship. It  is  probable  that  the  offerings  varied  according  to 
circumstances. 

We  must,  however,  add  that  lately  doubts  have  arisen  as 
to  the  purpose  of  these  mounds.  These  altars  on  a  level 


FIG.  28. — Group  near  the  Kickapoo  River,  Wisconsin. 

with  the  ground,  buried  beneath  heaps  of  sand  or  earth,  ap- 
pear strange,  and  are  without  precedent  in  the  history  of  any 
known  religion.  The  question  has  been  asked  whether  they 
are  not,  after  all,  burial-places  where  cremation  was  the  rite 
performed.  The  great  number  of  similar  objects  met  with 
seem  to  me  to  bear  against  this  hypothesis,  but  this  is  a 
point  which  later  excavations  and  fresh  discoveries  alone 
can  determine. 

Perhaps  two    groups  recently  discovered  in  Wisconsin  1 
may  be  classed  amongst   sacrificial  mounds.      The  first  is 

1  Conant,  p.  20. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS. 


109 


situated  in  a  low  meadow  near  the  Kickapoo  River  (fig.  28). 
The  height  of  the  central  mound,  which  represents  a  radiat- 
ing circle,  is  but  three  feet ;  its  diameter  is  sixty  feet,  and 
is  surrounded  by  five  crescentic  ridges,  rising  scarcely  two 
feet  above  the  ground,  presenting  a  flat  upper  surface.  Ex- 
cavations show  that  these  mounds  were  made  up  of  white 
sand  and  bluish  clay.  They  have  yielded  only  a  considerable 
number  of  plates  and  very  thin  fragments  of  mica.  Mica 
seems  to  have  been  much  used  by  the  Indian  tribes  of  the 
United  States,  who  were  able  to  obtain  it.  It  is  frequently 


FIG.  29. — Group  of  mounds  (Wisconsin). 

found  in  graves  and  on  the  altar  places,  especially  in  the 
southeast,  where  it  is  particularly  abundant  in  the  mountain 
districts  of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia. 

The  second  group  (fig.  29),  situated  a  short  distance  from 
the  first,  is  more  complicated  in  its  arrangement.  It  con- 
sists of  two  circles  separated  by  a  pentagon  and  several  de- 
tached mounds.  The  diameter  of  the  large  circle  is  twelve 
hundred  feet.  In  the  centre  rises  an  altar,  in  connection 
with  which  a  romantic  story  about  the  offering  up  of  human 
sacrifices  has  been  invented,  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  quote. 

The  most  numerous  mounds  are  those  which  rise  from 


1 10 


PRE-HISTOR1C   AMERICA. 


graves ;  at  all  ages  and  places  man  shows  respect  to  the 
mortal  remains  of  him  who  was  a  man  like  himself.  Affec- 
tion for  parents  or  friends,  the  universal  notion  of  a  future 
life,  vague  and  materialistic  though  it  evidently  was  in  that 
stage  of  culture,  perhaps  also  the  desire  of  propitiating  the 
dead,  or  the  fear  of  the  vengeance  of  him  whose  corpse  had 
been  profaned  ;  all  these  motives  combine  to  produce  the 
respect  for  the  dead  which  we  meet  with  among  most  bar- 
barous as  well  as  most  civilized  people. 


FIG.  30. — Group  of  sepulchral  mounds. 

Sepulchral  mounds  (fig.  30),  everywhere  showing  many 
points  of  resemblance,  are  met  with  throughout  the  United 
States.  Frequent  supplementary  burials  add  to  the  origi- 
nally great  difficulties  of  studying  them.  At  different 
epochs  they  have  been  used  by  successive  tribes  of  Indians, 
and  even  by  the  whites,  for  the  burial  of  their  dead.  It  is, 
however,  often  possible  to  distinguish  the  intrusive  inter- 
ments, which  are  near  the  surface,  whilst  the  bodies  placed 
on  a  level  with  the  ground  certainly  belonged  to  the  race  of 
the  builders  of  the  mounds.  There  are  few  traditions  relat- 
ing to  these  mounds  among  the  Indians,  who  generally 
deny  that  they  were  the  works  of  their  ancestors,  which  often 
may  be  true,  so  great  are  the  migrations  and  changes  which 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  Ill 

have  taken  place  during  the  last  few  centuries.  Breclcen- 
ridge,  however,  in  speaking  of  the  excavations  of  the  Big 
Mound  (fig.  31),  which  a  short  time  since  was  a  prominent 
object  within  the  city  limits  of  St.  Louis,  says  that  the  In- 
dians hastened  to  take  from  it  the  bones  of  one  of  their 
chiefs. 

Mounds  are  connected  with  very  different  rites,  and 
among  them  we  meet  with  every  form  of  burial  in  use  in 
Europe  ;  the  bodies  were  sometimes  extended  horizontally, 
sometimes  doubled  up.  We  noted  at  Sandy  Woods  settle- 
ment the  different  positions  of  the  bodies  ;  in  Union  county, 


FIG.  31.— Big  Mound  at  St.  Louis  (Missouri). 

Kentucky,  the  bodies  were  placed  one  upon  another  without 
apparent  method.1  Cremation,  too,  was  practised.  In  Mis- 
souri the  body  was  sometimes  covered  over  with  a  layer  of 
clay,  after  which  a  huge  funeral  pile  was  lighted.  Mention 
has  also  been  made  of  remains  found  in  Ohio,  covered  with 
a  layer  of  clay  made  so  hard  by  baking  that  it  was  only  with 
the  greatest  trouble  that  it  could  be  cut  into.2  Gillman  tells 
of  having  found  in  Florida  the  ashes  of  the  dead  preserved 
with  pious  care  in  human  skulls.3  In  Kansas  stones  were 
heaped  over  the  body,  forming  a  cairn.4  In  other  places 

'Lyon:  "Smiths.  Contr.,"  1870. 
1  "  Burial  Mounds  in  Ohio,"  Am.  Ant.,  July,  1879. 
1  Explorations  in  the  vicinity  of  Aledo,  Florida. 
4  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  II.,  p.  717. 


112  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

skeletons  have  been  found  wrapped  up  in  a  few  fragments 
of  coarse  tissue,  or  in  bandages  of  bark.  Squier  *  describes 
a  sepulchre  excavated  under  his  direction  in  which  the  earth 
had  been  levelled  and  a  layer  of  bark  placed  beneath  the 
corpse.  Round  about  lay  some  implements  and  a  few  orna- 
ments, including  two  bear's  teeth  which  were  pierced  ;  above 
the  skeleton  was  a  second  layer  of  bark,  carefully  arranged, 
and,  piled  upon  these,  earth,  forming  a  mound. 

Under  a  mound  at  Chillicothe,  the  skeleton  was  discovered 
of  a  very  tall  woman  who  died  young  ;  her  teeth  were  all  in- 
tact, and  at  her  feet  lay  the  bones  of  a  child.  Beneath  these 
human  remains  was  greasy  black  earth,  in  which  the  microscope 
has  revealed  remains  of  animal  matter  and  heaps  of  cinders. 
Further  excavations  brought  to  light  a  great  many  other 
bones.  It  is  uncertain  whether  they  were  those  of  unfortu- 
nates offered  up  in  sanguinary  rites,  or  merely  of  those 
whose  remains  had  been  subjected  to  cremation  as  a  mark 
of  respect.  All  the  bodies  lay  on  the  left  side,  and  by  each 
one  was  placed  a  vessel  full  of  food,  which  would  hardly 
have  been  provided  for  victims.  These  are  very  character- 
istic funeral  rites. 

Other  explorers  tell  of  vast  cemeteries,  or  groups  of 
mounds,  which  they  look  upon  as  the  sepulchres  of  great 
chiefs.  We  shall  mention  the  most  important  discoveries 
and  endeavor  to  show  to  what  different  rites  they  bear 
witness. 

Near  New  Madrid,  Conant  noticed  that  the  bodies  were 
placed  horizontally,  with  the  head  turned  toward  the  centre 
of  the  mound.  Vessels  were  placed  on  the  right  and  the 
left,  and  a  third  was  held  upon  the  breast  by  the  crossed 
arms  of  the  dead.  Mr.  H.  Gillman  mentions  a  burial 
mound  at  Fort  Wayne,  where  the  confusion  in  which  the 
bones  lay  showed  numerous  secondary  burials,  but  where  in- 
humation had  always  been  the  mode  employed.  Some  pot- 
tery vases  give  evidence  of  an  art  that  had  already  made 
progress. 

1  "  Ant.  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  p.  164. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  113 

The  excavations  at  Madisonville  in  the  valley  of  the  Lit- 
tle Miami,  Ohio,  by  Metz  and  Putnam,  have  yielded  more 
than  six  hundred  skeletons  of  every  age  and  of  both  sexes. 
Near  them  were  picked  up  numerous  pots,  some  of  them 
decorated  with  incised  designs.  Two  were  decorated  with 
small  medallions  representing  human  heads.  Other  articles 
found  were  stone  pipes,  arrow-points,  knives,  hammers,  pol- 
ished adzes,  bone  implements,  and  shell  and  copper  orna- 
ments.1 

No  less  interesting  were  Farquharson's  excavations  near 
Davenport,  Iowa.  One  of  the  mounds  is  thirty  feet  in  di- 
ameter and  five  feet  high.  The  successive  layers  counting 
from  the  top  are  :  earth,  one  foot ;  stones  brought  from  the 
bed  of  the  river,  one  and  one  half  feet ;  second  layer  of  earth, 
one  and  one  half  feet ;  layer  of  shells,  two  inches ;  third 
layer  of  earth,  one  foot ;  second  layer  of  shells,  four  inches. 
Five  skeletons  stretched  out  horizontally  rested  on  the  last 
layer.  The  objects  placed  with  the  dead  consisted  of  a  large 
sea-shell  (Busy con  perversum — L.)  ;  two  unused  copper  axes 
covered  with  a  woven  tissue  of  which  the  remains  could  still 
be  made  out ;  an  awl  also  of  copper,  a  stone  arrow-point,  and 
two  pipes — one  representing  a  frog.  The  human  bones 
crumbled  to  dust  as  soon  as  they  were  brought  to  light,  so 
that  no  examination  was  possible.  The  objects  picked  up  in 
the  other  mounds  of  Iowa  were  of  a  similar  kind  ;  two  pipes 
are  mentioned,  one  representing  a  pig,  the  other  a  bird,  both 
presenting  a  considerable  resemblance  to  those  of  Ohio.  We 
must  also  mention  the  tooth  of  a  gray  bear,  pierced  with  a  hole 
by  which  to  hang  it  on  a  cord  ;  careful  examination  proved 
this  tooth  not  to  be  a  real  one,  but  an  imitation  in  bone. 
These  people  were  therefore  not  wanting  in  powers  of  ob- 
servation. Under  a  mound  near  Toolesborough,  Iowa,  was 
picked  up  a  shell  alleged  to  be  native  to  South  America,' 
which  had  been  brought  far  away  from  the  scenes  where  the 
mollusk  had  lived  to  which  it  had  belonged. 

1  "Bulletin,  Harvard  University,"  June,   1881. 

1  American  Antiquarian,   1879.     This  statement  requires   confirmation   by 
an  expert  conchologist. 


1 14  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Deacon  Elliot  Frinck  speaks  of  a  skeleton  buried  head 
downward.'  This  would  be  a  curious  fact,  but  it  is  one  of 
so  exceptional  a  character  in  America  as  well  as  in  the  Old 
World,  that  one  cannot  help  thinking  the  corpse  was  origi- 
nally placed  in  a  sitting  or  doubled  up  posture,  and  that  the 
pressure  of  the  earth  or  the  decomposition  of  the  body 
caused  the  head  to  slip  between  the  knees.  In  Wisconsin 
the  dead  were  wrapped  in  bandages  of  bark  and  seated 
facing  the  east.  No  weapons  or  ornaments  were  placed 
near  them,  and  Dr.  Lapham's  numerous  excavations  have 
produced  nothing  but  three  vases  of  very  common  pottery.4 

In  other  places,  in  Tennessee  for  instance,  numerous 
skeletons,  apparently  dating  from  the  time  of  the  Mound 
Builders,  have  been  found  in  caves.  In  one  of  these  caves, 
fifteen  miles  from  Sparta,  some  human  remains  were  found 
enclosed  in  baskets  made  of  rushes  artistically  plaited  ;  nor 
is  this  an  isolated  instance.  Heywood  relates  having  seen 
on  Smith's  Fork,  near  Cairo,  the  skeletons  of  a  man  and  of  a 
woman  laid  in  baskets.8  Humboldt  mentions  similar  facts 
in  Peru.4  The  most  curious  sepulchres  are,  however,  those 
in  which  the  dead  were  buried  between  slabs  of  rough  stone, 
or  in  sepulchral  chambers,  recalling  the  chambered  barrows 
of  England. 

Since  1818,  a  cemetery  has  been  found  at  Trenton,  «fif  teen 
miles  from  St.  Louis,  where  the  skeletons  lay  in  cists  made 
of  six  stones,  clumsily  put  together  without  cement  of  any 
kind.  The  largest  of  these  cists  were  not  more  than  fifty 
inches  in  length,  and  the  bodies  must  have  been  curled  up 
in  them,  or  the  bones  placed  there  after  decomposition  of 
the  flesh.  Hence  the  popular  belief,  maintained  to  this  day, 
that  Missouri  and  Tennessee  were  originally  inhabited  by  a 
race  of  pygmies. 

1  Perkins  :  "  Ancient  Burial-Ground  in  Swanton,  Vermont."  "  Rep.  Am. 
xVss.,"  Portland,  1873. 

9  "  Ant.  of  Wisconsin,"    "  Smiths.  Contr.,"  vol. VII. 

*  Jones :  ' '  Explorations  of  the  Aboriginal  Remains  of  Tennessee."  "  Smiths. 
Contr.,"  vol.  XXII.,  Washington,  1876. 

4  "  Personal  Travels  to  the  Equinoctial  Regions  of  America,"  vol.  II.,  p. 
396  etseq.t  Bolin's  Edition,  1852. 


THE  AfOUND  BUILDERS.  11$ 

Other  discoveries  have  supplemented  these.  During  the 
session  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science,  at  Nashville,  in  1877,  several  of  the  numer- 
ous mounds  of  Tennessee  were  excavated.1  Putnam  was  of 
the  opinion  that  they  were  the  graves  and  the  work  of 
the  same  race  as  that  of  which  he  had  found  cemeteries  in 
Arkansas,  Missouri,  and  Illinois.2  These  mounds  were  situ- 
ated on  a  farm  belonging  to  Miss  Bowling.  The  skulls 
were  of  similar  form,  the  ornaments  and  pottery  of  similar 
manufacture.  The  number  of  the  skeletons  was  consider- 
able. Their  figure  was  estimated  at  between  six  and  eight 
hundred ;  one  of  the  sepulchres  alone,  excavated  under  the 
personal  superintendence  of  the  learned  keeper  of  the 
Peabody  Museum,  yielded  nearly  fifty.  The  bodies  with  but 
one  exception  were  enclosed  between  slabs  of  unwrought 
stone  of  varying  size,  and  these  sarcophagi  were  arranged 
hap-hazard  in  successive  layers.3  Some  were  empty,  doubt- 
less awaiting  the  body  that  was  to  occupy  them.  The  bodies 
were  stretched  out  horizontally, .  and  near  each  had  been 
placed  pieces  of  pottery  of  various  forms,4  stone  and  bone 
implements,  and  shell  ornaments,  the  last  souvenirs  given  to 
the  dead.  In  Madison  county,  Illinois,  two  stone  cists  were 
found  which  have  been  described  in  detail  by  Bandelier. 
They  form  a  rectangle,  each  side  of  which  is  made  of  slabs 
of  limestone  in  their  natural  condition,  showing  no  trace 
of  human  workmanship.  The  bones  were  so  mixed  together 
that  they  are  supposed  to  have  been  thrown  into  the 
cist  after  the  decomposition  of  the  flesh.  Although  the 
antiquity  of  these  bones  seems  to  be  great,  one  of  the  skulls 

1  "  Numerous  stone  graves  containing  human  remains  are  at  the  present  day 
found  along  the  banks  of  the  rivers  and  streams  in  the  fertile  valleys,  and  around 
the  cool  springs  which  abound  in  the  limestone  region  of  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky.  These  ancient  repositories  of  the  dead  are  frequently  surrounded  by 
extensive  earthworks." — Dr.  Jones. 

s  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1878,  vol.  II.,  p.  203,  etc. 

3  "  Arch.  Explorations  in  Tennessee,"  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  II., 
P-  305. 

4  In  the  following  chapter  we  shall  recur  to  the  very  curious  pieces  of  pottery 
found  in  these  excavations. 


Il6  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

has  been  recognized  by  competent  judges  as  approaching  the 
type  of  the  present  Indian  race. 

More  important  work  and  more  complicated  arrangement 
are  seen  in  the  chambered  mounds.  We  mention  first 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  tumuli,  that  of  Grave  Creek, 
Virginia,  at  the  junction  of  that  stream  with  the  Ohio. 
This  mound,  which  is  of  considerable  size,  encloses  two 
sepulchral  chambers  one  at  about  thirty  feet  above  the 
other.  They  were  built  of  beams,  which,  gradually  giving 
way,  let  the  stones  and  earth  piled  up  on  the  roof  fall  into 
the  vacant  space  and  crush  the  skeletons  which  had  been 
laid  in  the  chambers.  The  upper  room  contained  but  one 
body,  the  lower  two  bodies — one  of  a  man,  the  other  of 
a  woman.  Beside  them  lay  numerous  mica  ornaments,  shell 
collars,  copper  bracelets,  and  some  fragments  of  hewn  stone. 
From  the  lower  room  was  entered  a  larger  one  where 
ten  skeletons  were  found  in  a  squatting  posture,  but  un- 
fortunately so  much  decomposed  that  they  could  not  be  sub- 
jected to  any  scientific  examination.  It  is  supposed  that 
they  were  the  remains  of  unfortunate  victims  immolated  in 
honor  of  the  chief  to  whom  the  tomb  was  devoted. 

At  Harrisonville,  Franklin  county,  Ohio,  excavations  have 
brought  to  light  rough  stones  placed  one  on  top  of  the  other, 
without  any  trace  of  mortar ;  after  removing  the  earth,  roots 
and  rubbish  of  all  kinds  covering  it  up,  a  room  twelve  feet 
square  was  made  out,  with  a  hearth  at  the  end  still  filled  with 
cinders  and  charcoal,  round  about  which  lay  eight  skeletons 
of  every  age  from  the  child  to  the  old  man.  In  the  various 
valleys  of  the  same  region  rise  similar  mounds,  in  which  have 
been  found  numerous  human  bones,  stone  implements,  and 
fragments  of  pottery.  In  one  of  the  skulls  was  stuck  a 
spear  point  about  six  inches  long  which  had  probably  in- 
flicted the  death  wound.  Some  of  the  crypts  had  vaulted 
roofs '  the  better  to  resist  the  pressure  of  the  earth  above. 

1  "  Recent  explorations  of  many  mounds  have  disclosed  vaults  walled  and 
covered  with  stone,  some  of  large  dimensions,  with  contents  similar  to  those  of 
Utah,"  Conant  :  "  Foot  prints  of  Vanished  Races, "p.  75. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  117 

These  sepulchral  chambers  are  chiefly  met  with  in  the 
central  states.  Excavations  in  Big  Mound,  St.  Louis,  of 
which  we  have  already  spoken  (fig.  31),  and  which  was  only 
destroyed  in  1869,  brought  to  light  the  existence  of  a  crypt 
measuring  thirty  feet  high  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long.1 
The  walls  were  not  of  stone  like  those  just  mentioned  but  of 
compact  clay  carefully  smoothed.  It  is  supposed  that  the 
roof  had  been  formed  of  beams  for  supporting  the  weight  of 
earth.  This  is  a  plan  followed  in  many  neighboring  mounds, 
dating  probably  from  the  same  epoch.  The  bodies  were 
stretched  upon  the  bare  ground,  all  the  heads  being  turned 
toward  the  east.  In  the  black  mould  covering  the  bones, 
broken  into  fragments  by  the  fall  of  earth  from  above, 
were  picked  up  a  considerable  number  of  shells,  chiefly  the 
shells  of  fresh-water  mussels,  which  are  very  abundant  in  the 
neighborhood,  and  a  pretty  sea-shell  the  Marginella  apicina 
of  Lamarck ;  also  shell  beads,  somewhat  like  those  found  in 
Ohio,  and  cut  out  of  the  Busycon  perversum  so  abundant  in 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

It  is  proved  beyond  a  doubt  by  numerous  instances  that 
cremation  was  practised  in  certain  cases  by  the  Mound 
Builders,  who  at  the  same  time  in  other  cases  disposed 
of  their  dead  by  inhumation.  We  have  been  speaking  of  the 
sepulchral  chambers  of  the  Missouri ;  Curtiss  speaks  of 
important  groups  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  Three  of  these 
he  had  excavated  under  his  own  superintendence ;  the  crypts 
formed  a  square  of  eight  feet  with  a  height  of  four  to  five  feet, 
and  a  passage  several  feet  long  ended  in  an  opening  facing 
the  east.  Toward  the  base  the  walls  were  five  feet  thick 
gradually  decreasing  to  the  top,  and  built  of  stone,  without 
mortar  or  cement  of  any  kind.  One  of  the  crypts  was 
closed  with  great  slabs ;  the  others  had  probably  been 
shut  in  with  beams,  long  since  disappeared.  Each  of  them 
enclosed  several  skeletons,1  all  of  which  had  been  subjected 

1  Breckenridge  :  "Views  of  Louisiana."  When  the  excavations  took 
place  this  crypt  had  already  been  disturbed,  but  it  could  still  be  distinguished 
over  an  area  seventy-two  feet  in  length.  Conant,  /.  c.,  p.  42. 

*  In  one  of   the  crypts  Curtiss   says  he   made  out  five   skeletons  ;  in   an- 


Il8  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

to  fierce  heat.  The  human  bones  were  mixed  with  cinders, 
bits  of  charcoal,  and  animal  bones,  which  were  piled  upon 
the  ground  several  inches  high,  and  amongst  the  remains  the 
explorers  discovered  several  all  but  unrecognizable  frag- 
ments of  pottery,  some  stone  implements,  and  a  shark's 
tooth.  Excavations  were  also  carried  on  under  a  large 
mound  near  by,  but  no  traces  of  cremation  were  met  with  in 
it.  The  bodies  were  stretched  horizontally  on  the  ground, 
and  Mr.  Curtiss  was  able  to  make  a  valuable  collection 
of  implements,  stone  weapons,  and  carefully  manufactured 
pieces  of  pottery.  What  were  the  relations  between  the 
men  who  buried  their  dead  and  their  neighbors  who  burnt 
them  ?  Did  they  belong  to  the  same  races  ?  Did  they 
live  at  the  same  epoch  ?  There  are  no  means  of  replying 
with  any  certainty  to  these  questions. 

Missouri  is  not  the  only  region  where  cremation  was 
practised.  Dr.  Andrews  speaks  of  some  burnt  human  bones 
found  in  Connett's  Mound,  near  Dover,  Athens  county, 
Ohio,  which  distinctly  prove  that  the  corpse  had  been  re- 
duced to  ashes  by  fire.1  Before  cremation  the  body  seems 
to  have  been  placed  in  a  wooden  coffin.  The  presence  of 
remains  of  various  matters  used  for  food,  such  as  those  met 
with  in  the  shell-heaps,  points  to  the  practice  of  feasting  in 
connection  with  the  funeral  ceremonies.  Dr.  Larkin  comes  to 
the  same  conclusions  after  the  excavation  of  a  mound  in  the 
state  of  New  York.3  Under  one  of  the  mounds  rising  in 
the  Pishtaka  valley,  Lapham  collected  some  burnt  clay,  some 
stones  almost  converted  into  lime  by  the  action  of  intense 
heat,  some  pieces  of  charcoal,  and  among  all  these  a 
half  calcined  human  shin-bone.  Squier  also  mentions  sev- 
eral instances  of  skeletons  still  showing  traces  of  the  fire 
which  consumed  the  flesh. 

We  may  also  mention  a  mound  of  oval  form  situated 
in  Florida.  The  two  axes  of  the  base  measure  respectively 

other,  thirteen.  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  II.,  p.  717.  See  also  E. 
P.  West,  Western  Review,  Feb.,  1879. 

1  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1877,  vol.  II.,  p.  59. 

'"Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1880,  vol.  II.,  p.  722. 


THE   MOUND  BUILDERS.  lig 

ninety-eight  and  eighty-eight  feet.  At  different  depths 
varying  from  one  to  fifteen  feet  numerous  human  bones 
have  been  picked  up,  bearing  witness  to  a  whole  series 
of  burials.  With  these  bones  were  found  several  vases 
of  remarkable  execution  and  ornamentation,  some  frag- 
ments of  quartz,  and  a  stone  hatchet.  As  the  excava- 
tions proceeded,  cinders,  and  half-consumed  human  bones 
were  found ;  they  had  been  collected  and  placed  in  a 
skull  which  unfortunately  crumbled  to  dust  as  soon  as 
it  was  brought  to  light.  This  is  not  a  solitary  instance, 
for  we  have  already  spoken  of  other  cases  in  point.  Did 
these  skulls,  the  presence  of  which  certainly  proves  the 
use  of  a  special  funeral  ceremony,  belong  to  the  men  whose 
bodies  had  been  burned  ?  It  is  difficult  to  say ;  for  if  on 
the  one  hand  the  skulls  bear  no  mark  of  fire,  there  are  on  the 
other  no  remains  of  skulls  among  the  human  fragments  col- 
lected. We  must  add  that  some  of  the  long  bones  seem  to 
have  been  split ;  if  this  be  really  the  case  and  we  attach  to  it 
its  natural  interpretation,  cannibalism  was  not  unknown 
among  the  Mound  Builders. 

We  may  also  mention  the  excavations  made  in  1874,  in- 
to the  mounds  on  the  Mississippi,  opposite  the  town  of 
Muscatine.  They  yielded  human  bones,  and  above  the  bones 
charcoal  and  burnt  earth,  a  positive  proof  that  a  large  fire 
had  been  lighted  after  burial.  This  was  still  another  mode 
of  conducting  the  funeral  ceremony.1 

Cremation  is  still  practised  amongst  some  of  the  In- 
dians of  North  America.  John  Leconte  speaks  of  having 
witnessed  scenes  of  this  description  amongst  the  Kokopas 
settled  near  Fort  Yuma,  at  the  junction  of  the  Colorado  and 
the  Gila.  A  deep  trench  had  been  dug  and  wood  piled  up 
before  the  parents  and  friends  brought  the  body.  The  faces 
of  the  men  were  painted  black  ;  the  women  howled  and  sung 
funeral  hymns  alternately.  When  the  body  was  half 
consumed,  an  old  man,  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  tribe,  ap- 
proached it  and  with  a  pointed  stick  tore  out  both  the  eyes 

1  American  Antiquarian,  1879,  3d  quarter,  p.  99. 


I2O 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


and  held  first  one  and  then  the  other  toward  the  sun,  saying 
a  few  words  which,  according  to  the  guide  who  accompanied 
Leconte,  were  a  prayer  for  the  deceased.  When  all  was 
over  and  the  fire  put  out,  the  assistant  carefully  collected 
the  ashes  and  the  calcined  bones  to  give  them  back  to 
the  family  of  the  departed.1 

To  conclude  our  remarks  on  sepulchral  mounds  we  must 
mention  some  facts  hitherto  little  known,  and  which  il- 
lustrate still  better  the  honors  rendered  by  the  Mound 
Builders  to  their  chiefs,  and  the  pious  care  with  which  their 
funerals  were  conducted.  A  group  of  mounds  (fig.  32)  rises 


FIG.  32. — Group  of  mounds  at  the  junction  of  Straddle  Creek  and  Plumb 
River,  Illinois. 

at  the  junction  of  Straddle  Creek  and  Plumb  River,  Car- 
roll county,  Illinois.9  The  forms  of  these  mounds  vary; 
some  are  conical,  others  are  more  or  less  complete  circles. 
Excavations  have  yielded  cinders  and  a  residuum  of  black 
mould.  It  is  supposed  that  these  mounds  were  the  burial- 
places  of  men  who  burned  their  dead,  that  each  family  had 
its  tomb,  and  when  one  of  the  members  died  his  ashes  were 
laid  beside  those  of  his  people  and  covered  with  a  layer 
of  earth,  and  that  this  was  continued  until  a  cone  about  two 
feet  high  was  formed.  The  circles  and  half  circles  are  sup- 

111  Cremation  Amongst  North  American  Indians." — Am.  Ass.,  New  York, 
1874. 
*  Conant :  "  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races,"  p.  17. 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  121 

posed  to  indicate  tombs  the  inmates  of  which  were  not 
numerous,  but  whose  families  had  become  extinct  or  dis- 
persed, so  that  the  graves  were  never  filled.  We  give  this 
explanation  for  what  it  is  worth,  only  adding  that  similar 
burial-places  are  met  with  in  all  the  districts  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  in  the  Ohio  valley,  Michigan,  and  many  of  the 
northern  states. 

At  about  two  hundred  and  eighty  yards  from  the  group 
we  have  just  noticed  another  has  been  discovered,  dating  ap- 
parently from  the  same  epoch,  in  which  the  bodies  were 
simply  interred.  It  is  alleged  that  tradition  ascribes  this 
change  in  the  mode  of  burial  to  obedience  to  the  prophets  of 
the  tribe,  who  were  alarmed  by  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  which 
occurred  whilst  the  body  of  one  of  their  chiefs  was  be- 
ing burnt.  Without  attaching  more  importance  than  it 
deserves  to  this  asserted  tradition,  we  will  merely  add  that 
the  fact  of  the  simultaneous  practice  amongst  the  same 
people  of  two  funeral  rites  so  different  as  cremation  and  in- 
terment would  surprise  us  more,  if  we  did  not  know  of  many 
analogous  examples  among  the  various  races  of  Europe. 

The  second  group  (fig.  33)  discovered  in  Minnesota,  on  the 
northern  bank  of  the  St.  Peter's  River,  about  sixty  miles 
from  its  junction  with  the  Mississippi,  is  of  more  com- 
plicated appearance.  It  includes  twenty-six  mounds  placed 
at  regular  distances  from  each  other,  and  forming  together  a 
large  rectangle.1  The  central  mound  (a)  represents  a  turtle 
forty  feet  long  by  twenty-seven  feet  wide  and  twelve  feet 
high.  It  is  almost  entirely  formed  of  yellow  clay,  foreign  to 
the  locality,  and  doubtless  brought  from  a  distance.  On  the 
north  and  south  rise  two  mounds  (d)  of  triangular  form,  com- 
posed of  red  earth,  covered  with  a  thin  layer  of  soil.  Each 
of  these  mounds  is  twenty-seven  feet  long  by  about  six  feet 
wide  at  the  wider  end,  gradually  decreasing  toward  the 
opposite  end,  which  scarcely  rises  above  the  level  of  the  soil. 
At  each  corner  rises  a  circular  mound  (_/")  twelve  feet  high  by 
twenty-five  feet  in  diameter.  On  the  cast  and  west  are  two 

lConant  :  "  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races,"  p.  18. 


122 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


elongated  mounds  (c)  sixty  feet  long  with  a  diameter  of 
twelve  feet.  Two  smaller  mounds  (e)  on  the  right  and 
left  of  the  turtle  are  each  twelve  feet  long  by  four  feet 
high.  They  consist  of  white  sand  mixed  with  numerous 
fragments  of  mica  and  covered  with  a  layer  of  clay  and 
a  second  one  of  vegetable  mould.  The  two  mounds  (#) 
differ  in  height ;  that  on  the  south  being  twelve  feet  high  by 
twenty-seven  feet  in  diameter,  whilst  that  on  the  north 
is  only  four  feet  high,  with  a  diameter  of  twenty-two  feet. 
Lastly  thirteen  little  mounds,  the  dimensions  of  which 
are  not  given,  complete  this  remarkable  group,  which  must 
have  cost  the  builders  all  the  more  work  because  part  of  the 


FIG.  33. — The  burial-place  of  the  Black  Tortoise. 

materials  can  only  have  been  obtained  from  a  considerable 
distance. 

Here  is  the  explanation  given  by  Conant,  of  the  whole 
group.  The  principal  tomb  (a)  would  be  the  last  home  of 
a  great  chief,  the  Black  Tortoise  ;  the  four  mounds  (/)  which 
form  the  corners  of  the  quadrangle  were  also  erected  as  a 
sign  of  the  mourning  of  the  tribe  ;  the  secondary  mounds 
would  be  the  tombs  of  other  chiefs,  and  the  little  mounds 
erected  in  the  north  and  south  correspond  with  the  number 
of  bodies  which  had  been  deposited  in  them.  The  two 
pointed  mounds  (d)  indicate  that  the  Black  Tortoise  was 
the  last  of  his  race,  and  the  two  large  mounds  the 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  123 

importance  of  that  race  and  the  dignity  that  had  be- 
longed to  it.  Lastly,  the  two  mounds  (e)  on  the  right 
and  left  of  the  royal  tomb  mark  the  burial-places  of  the 
prophets  or  soothsayers,  who  even  to  our  own  day  play 
a  great  part  among  the  Indian  tribes.  The  fragments  of 
mica  found  in  their  tombs  would  indicate  their  rank.  It 
may  be  said  that  in  the  absence  of  any  accurate  information 
whatever,  as  to  the  origin  and  use  of  these  mounds,  the  pre- 
ceding hypothesis  is  not  more  unfounded  than  many  others 
which  might  be  invented. 

Of  all  the  mounds  erected  on  American  soil,  the  most 
curious  are  without  doubt  those  representing  animals,  first 
noticed  and  described  by  Mr.  W.  Pidgeon  in  1853.  They 
are  met  with  in  Iowa,  Ohio,  Illinois,  Missouri,  Indiana,  and 
generally  speaking  in  all  the  states  of  the  far  west ;  but 
the  chief  centre  of  these  singular  erections  seems  to  have 
been  Wisconsin,  where  they  are  very  numerous.  Some 
archaeologists  think  that  the  animal  mounds  may  perhaps 
have  been  intended  to  represent  the  totem  or  distinctive 
symbol  of  a  clan.  This  symbol  is  often  an  animal,  such  as 
the  eagle,  wolf,  bear,  turtle,  or  fqx,  but,  if  the  observations 
made  may  be  relied  on,  they  are  as  often  representations  of 
objects  not  totemic  as  otherwise.  They  represent  men  with 
the  trunk,  head,  arms,  and  legs,  still  recognizable ;  mammals 
sixty-five  yards  long;  birds1  with  outspread  wings  measuring 
more  than  thirty-two  yards  from  tip  to  tip ;  reptiles,  turtles, 
and  "  lizards  "  of  colossal  dimensions  ;  and,  lastly,  Pidgeon 
mentions  having  seen  in  Minnesota  a  huge  spider,  whose 
body  and  legs  covered  an  acre  of  ground. 

These  mounds  of  diverse  form  are  grouped  without  ap- 
parent order, — now  by  the  side  of  pyramids  or  truncated 
cones,  now  in  the  midst  of  circles  or  rectangles  connected 
with  the  structures  we  are  about  to  describe.  At  Pewaukee, 
Wisconsin,  seven  turtles,  two  "  lizards,"  and  four  mounds  of 

1  Mounds  of  the  form  of  birds  have  recently  been  discovered  in  Putnam 
county,  Georgia.  This  is  an  interesting  fact,  for  hitherto  such  mounds  had 
only  been  found  in  the  northern  and  western  states. — ' '  Bird-shaped  mounds 
in  Putnam  county,  Georgia,"  Anthr.  Inst.  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  1879. 


124 


PRE-H1STOR1C  AMERICA. 


elliptical  form  can  be  made  out  together.  One  of  the  turtles, 
the  largest  yet  discovered,  measures  no  less  than  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet.  A  little  farther  off,  in  Dane  Co.,  we  meet 
with  a  group  of  quadrupeds, — buffaloes  according  to  some 
authorities,  pumas  according  to  others.  Their  length  varies 
from  eighty-two  to  one  hundred  and  fourteen  feet.  In  other 
places  an  observer  of  lively  imagination  can  make  out  elks, 
bears,  wolves,  panthers,  eagles,  wild  geese,  herons,  even  frogs. 
What  is  more  certain  than  their  form,  however,  is,  that  in  the 
vast  western  plains  these  ridges  can  easily  be  seen  from  a 
distance,  though  their  height  seldom  exceeds  two  yards,  and 


FIG.  34. — Mound  supposed  to  represent  a  man. 

often  amounts  only  to  a  few  inches.  We  may  as  well  add 
that  nothing  has  been  found  in  the  numerous  excavations 
made  into  mounds  of  this  description,  and  that  some  archae- 
ologists are  bold  enough  to  doubt  the  very  existence  as 
artificial  structures  of  many  of  those  which  have  been  de- 
scribed. However,  from  among  the  most  celebrated  mounds 
of  this  sort  we  select  a  human  figure  (fig.  34),  in  which  the 
design  may  be  admitted.  It  is  stated  that  a  more  or  less 
ancient  tradition  alleges  that  this  mound  was  erected  in 
honor  of  a  chief  killed  in  battle.  The  little  mound  placed 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS. 


125 


between  the  legs  was  sacred  to  the  memory  of  his  son,  killed 
fighting  by  the  side  of  his  father.  We  may  also  refer  to  the 
"alligator,"  of  Granville,  Ohio,  (fig.  35);  the  length  of  the 


FIG.  35. — Curved  section  of  the  mountain,  and  plan  of  the  so-called  alligator 

mound. 


FIG.  36. — Mound  supposed  to  represent  a  mastodon. 

body  is  two  hundred  and  five  feet,  that  of  each  foot  is 
twenty  feet ;  it  is  evidently  not  an  alligator,  for  the  abo- 
rigines were  too  good  observers  to  give  an  alligator  a  round 


126  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

head.  It  might  have  been  intended  for  an  otter,  or  the 
great  salamander  (tnenopoma),  if  really  designed  for  an 
animal  at  all.  Another  has  been  claimed  as  a  mastodon 
(fig.  36),  and  is  situated  a  short  distance  from  the  junction 
of  the  Wisconsin  and  the  Mississippi  rivers.  It  is  considered 
to  be  a  surprising  likeness  by  archaeologists  who  are  not 
zoologists. 

Other  enthusiastic  investigators  have  discovered  in  Wiscon- 
sin a  monkey  160  feet  long.  Its  alleged  tail  forms  a  semi- 
circle, which,  uncurled,  would  measure  no  less  than  320  feet.1 
In  one  of  those  in  Wisconsin  a  bird  is  represented  just  about 
to  take  flight,  and  under  one  of  its  wings  is  a  little  elliptical 

mound.  Lapham  thinks  he  makes 
out  a  complete  allegory  in  this  : 
The  bird  is  taking  to  the  land  of 
spirits  the  soul  of  him  to  whom 
the  mound  is  sacred,  and  this  soul 
is  represented  by  the  little  mound 
under  the  wing  of  the  bird.4 

We  must    not    omit  the  great 

FIG.  37- -Basalt  cup  from  Mexico.  gnake  set  upon  a  hijl  overlook- 
ing Brush  Creek,  Adams  county,  Ohio.  His  coils  are 
about  700  feet  long,  and  he  appears  to  be  swallowing  an  egg, 
which  he  holds  in  his  mouth  and  which  is  represented  by 
a  mound,  the  large  axis  of  which  measures  160  feet.  Proba- 
bly we  have  an  allegory  here  also.  The  serpent  plays  an 
important  part  in  the  mythology  of  the  American  aborig- 
ines. We  find  it  represented  on  their  pottery.  Out  of 
eighteen  Busycon  shells,  now  in  the  Peabody  Museum, 
which  had  served  as  ornaments  to  these  unknown  people, 
thirteen  are  engraved  with  the  figure  of  a  serpent.  The 
National  Museum  at  Washington  possesses  a  pipe  rep- 
resenting a  human  figure  with  a  serpent  coiled  round 
the  neck ;  and  that  of  Mexico,  a  vase  remarkable  for  the 
elegance  of  its  shape,  the  handle  of  which  is  formed  by  a 
serpent,  (fig.  37). 

'Foster,  "Prehistoric  Races,"  p.  101. 

'  "  Ant.  of  Wisconsin,"  pi.  XLVI.,  fig.  4, 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  I2/ 

We  have  other  yet  more  curious  instances.  In  several 
places,  though  we  cannot  interpret  its  meaning,  we  meet 
with  the  representation  of  a  serpent  swallowing  the  head  of 
a  turtle.  The  Dominican  monks  of  Mexico  have  preserved 
and  set  up  over  their  entrance  gate  an  antique  bas-relief 
representing  a  serpent  crushing  a  human  victim  in  his  coils. 
At  Chichen  Itza  colossal  serpents  are  carved  on  the  walls  of 
the  palace.  Near  Jalapa,  in  the  province  of  Vera  Cruz,  a 
serpent  fifteen  feet  long  is  distinguishable  sculptured  on  a 
rock,1  and  similar  serpents  are  found  in  the  bas-reliefs  of  the 
temple  of  Huitzilopochtli,  which  dates  from  the  time  of  the 
Aztecs,  as  well  as  on  the  walls  of  the  buildings  of  Cuzco, 
witnessing  to  Peruvian  splendor. 

The  very  name  of  some  races  recalls  the  worship  of  the 
serpent.  The  Nahuas,  who  share  with  the  Mayas  the 
honor  of  having  enjoyed  the  highest  known  civilization 
of  ancient  America,  are  often  called  the  Culhuas,  or  the 
men  of  the  race  of  the  serpent  ;  among  the  Mayas  the 
empire  of  Xibalba  was  known  under  the  name  of  the  Do- 
minion of  the  Chanes,  or  serpents.  May  we  not  trace  to  this 
origin  the  veneration  in  which  certain  Indian  tribes  of  New 
Mexico  still  hold  the  rattlesnake  ?  They  keep  it  in  certain 
caves  of  their  mountains,  the  entrances  to  which  they  hide 
with  jealous  care,  and  it  is  said  they  go  to  worship  it  in 
secret.2 

On  the  northern  banks  of  the  Wisconsin  rises  a  strange 
group  (fig.  38),  which  is  a  true  puzzle  to  explorers.8  It  in- 
cludes one  figure  180  feet  long,  placed  horizontally,  and  an- 
other 1 60  feet  long,  arranged  perpendicularly  with  regard  to 
the  former.  The  latter  abuts  upon  a  ridge  eighty  feet  long 
by  six  feet  high  and  twenty-seven  feet  in  diameter.  On  the 
same  line  are  a  series  of  mounds  of  conical  shape  and  gradu- 
ated size,  the  largest  representing  the  same  diameter  as  that 
of  the  above-mentioned  ridge.  The  first  figure  has  been  re- 

1  Rivero,  "  Hist,  de  Jalapa,  Mexico,"  vol.  I.,  p.  7. 

a  Bandelier  :   "  Ruins  of  the  Pueblo  of  Pecos." 

*  Conant  :   "  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races,"  p.  32,  etc. 


128 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


garded  as  an  elk,  the  second  as  human.  The  horns  of  the 
elk  are  of  unequal  size,  and  at  its  feet  is  one  of  the  triangu- 
lar mounds  which  have  been  supposed  to  typify  the  extinc- 
tion of  a  race.  This  group  is  explained  as  intended  to  com- 
memorate the  alliance  of  two  tribes,  of  which  the  elk  and 
the  buffalo  were  the  totem  or  the  symbols.  These  once  pow- 
erful tribes,  exhausted  by  long  and  bloody  struggles,  united 
for  the  common  defence,  and  their  alliance  is  indicated  by 
the  touching  of  the  man's  hand  and  the  elk's  foot.  The 
two  mounds  on  the  right  and  the  left  are  regarded  as 
altars,  on  which  sacrifices  were  offered  to  commemorate  the 
union  of  the  two  tribes.  A  layer  of  burnt  earth,  cinders,  and 


FlG.  38. — The  so-called  "man  and  the  elk  "  mounds  in  Wisconsin. 

charcoal,  fourteen  inches  thick,  seems  to  justify  this  supposi- 
tion. An  old  tree  has  pushed  its  roots  beneath  the  mounds  ; 
and  its  424  concentric  rings  of  growth  form  the  only  guide 
we  have  as  to  the  age  of  this  interesting  group.  Why  one 
tribe  was  represented  by  its  symbol  and  the  other  not,  is  not 
explained  by  the  above  hypothesis. 

Several  mounds  show  a  variety  worthy  of  remark.  Some 
animals  of  dimensions  pretty  nearly  resembling  those  of 
which  we  have  just  spoken,  are  represented,  not  by  ridges 
but  by  ditches.  We  mention  this  fact,  while  we  fully  recog- 
nize that  in  such  a  matter  imagination  is  offered  unlimited 
scope. 

In  other  places  representations  of  inanimate  objects  are 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS,  12<) 

spoken  of,  such  as  a  cross  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan,1 
and  a  Greek  cross  in  Ohio  about  twenty-nine  yards  long, 
with  a  large  hollow  in  the  centre  about  six  yards  deep. 
We  may  also  mention  a  cross  in  the  valley  formed  by  the 
Rock  River.  The  arms  of  this  cross  appear  to  be  equal, 
but  the  plow  has  already  commenced  its  work  of  destruc- 
tion, and  it  is  impossible  to  determine  the  length.  A 
mound  on  the  banks  of  the  Scioto a  represents  a  boat  fifty- 
two  yards  long  by  about  thirty  yards  wide,  and  a  little 
farther  off  the  explorer  makes  out  some  groups  which  he 
may  call,  according  to  the  fancy  of  the  moment,  clubs  or 
pipes.  We  are  not  disposed  to  attach  importance  to  resem- 
blances probably  quite  accidental. 

Although  incredulous  as  to  certain  interpretations  which 
some  would  have  accepted,  it  is  difficult  to  repress  surprise 
in  contemplating  the  admittedly  genuine  works  accom- 
plished by  these  vanished  people  with  only  the  help  of 
stone  tools,  baskets,  and  persistent  manual  labor.  In 
metals  they  had  at  most  some  copper  implements.  Iron 
and  bronze  appear  to  have  been  practically  unknown  to 
them,  and  in  no  part  of  a  vast  territory  they  occupied  have 
excavations  revealed  the  existence  or  the  use  of  any  metal  but 
native  copper,  with  its  associated  silver,  gold  and  a  few  frag- 
ments of  meteoric  iron.  But  our  astonishment  is  redoubled 
when  we  find  these  men  digging  canals  to  establish  water 
communication,  a  striking  proof  of  a  numerous  population, 
and  a  decided  advance  on  the  nomadic  state,  though,  as  evi- 
denced by  numerous  Asiatic  peoples,  not  necessarily  an  indi- 
cation of  a  high  degree  of  culture.  Lately  traces  of  such 
canals  have  been  made  out  in  Missouri.  Dr.  G.  Swallow, 
State  Geologist  of  Missouri,  calls  the  attention  of  archaeolo- 
gists to  them,  and  describes  one  fifty  feet  wide  by  twelve 
feet  deep.  There  are  others  in  different  places.  All  are  of 
systematic  design,  and,  according  to  that  gentleman,  they 

1  Lapham  :  "Ant.  of  Wisconsin,"  pp.  20  and  39,  pi.  XXXI.,  figs.  2  and  3. 
*  W.    de   Hass :     "Arch,    of   the    Mississippi   Valley,"  Rep.    Am.    Assoc., 
Chicago,  1868. 


130  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

are  executed  with  intelligent  reference  to  the  difficulties  of 
the  ground.  Earthquakes  have  in  many  places  destroyed 
the  traces  of  these  canals — the  progress  of  civilization  is  per- 
petually levelling  their  embankments — but  the  works  can 
still  be  made  out,  and  on  a  line  seventy  miles  long  a  series 
of  canals  can  be  recognized  connecting  the  Mississippi  with 
Big  Lake,  Cushion  and  Collins  lakes.1  These  people  may 
have  navigated  the  canals  in  boats,  which  we  can  confidently 
assert  they  knew  how  to  hollow  out,  with  the  aid  of  fire, 
from  the  trunks  of  trees.2  Similar  processes  were  employed 
in  Europe  in  the  early  days  of  navigation.  Recent  discov- 
eries have  suggested  the  existence  of  pile-dwellings  rising 
from  the  Great  Lakes  of  the  north.3  All  over  the  earth 
similar  wants  have  led  to  similar  efforts  of  intelligence  and 
similar  products  of  industry.  This  is  a  fact  of  very  great 
importance. 

In  closing  this  chapter,  what,  it  may  be  asked,  are  we  to 
believe  was  the  character  of  the  race  to  which  for  the  pur- 
pose of  clearness  we  have  for  the  time  being  applied  the 
term,  "  Mound  Builders  "  ?  The  answer  must  be,  they  were 
no  more  nor  less  than  the  immediate  predecessors  in  blood 
and  culture  of  the  Indians  described  by  De  Soto's  chronicler 
and  other  early  explorers,  the  Indians  who  inhabited  the 
region  of  the  mounds  at  the  time  of  their  discovery  by 
civilized  men.  As,  in  the  far  north,  the  Aleuts  up  to  the 
time  of  their  discovery  were,  by  the  testimony  of  the  shell- 
heaps,  as  well  as  their  language,  the  direct  successors  of  the 
early  Eskimo,4 — so  in  the  fertile  basin  of  the  Mississippi,  the 
Indians  were  the  builders  or  the  successors  of  the  builders 
of  the  singular  and  varied  structures  just  described.  It  is 
true  that  a  very  different  opinion  has  been  widely  enter- 
tained, chiefly  by  those  who  were  not  aware  of  the  historical 

1  Letter  from  M.  Carlton,  quoted  by  Conant :  "Footprints  of  Vanished 
Races,"  p.  78. 

4  Schoolcraft :  "  Archives  of  Aboriginal  Knowledge,"  vol.  I.,  p.  76. 

*  Am.  Antiquarian,  Jan.,  1881,  p.  141. 

4  "See  Contributions  to  North  American  Ethnology,"  vol.  I.,  1877.  Article 
2.  "  On  Succession  in  the  Shell-heaps  of  the  Aleutian  Islands." 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  13! 

evidence.  Even  Mr.  Squier  who,  in  his  famous  work  on  the 
ancient  monuments  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  makes  no  dis- 
tinction in  these  remains,  but  speaks  of  the  Mound  Builders 
as  an  extinct  race  and  contrasts  their  progress  in-  the  arts 
with  the  supposed  low  condition  of  the  modern  Indians,  in 
a  subsequent  publication  felt  compelled  to  modify  his  views 
and  distinguish  between  the  earthworks  of  western  New 
York,  which  he  admits  to  be  of  purely  Indian  origin,  and 
those  found  in  southern  Ohio.1  Further  researches  have 
shown  that  no  line  can  be  drawn  between  the  two ;  the  dif- 
ferences are  merely  of  degree.  For  the  most  part  the 
objects  found  in  them,  from  the  rude  knife  to  the  carved  and 
polished  "  gorget,"  might  have  been  taken  from  the  inmost 
recesses  of  a  mound  or  picked  up  on  the  surface  among  the 
debris  of  a  recent  Indian  village,  and  the  most  experienced 
archaeologist  could  not  decide  which  was  their  origin.  Lucien 
Carr  *  has  recently  reviewed  the  whole  subject  in  a  manner 
which  cannot  but  carry  conviction  to  the  impartial  archaeolo- 
gist, but  the  conclusions  he  arrives  at  have  the  weight  of 
other  and,  as  all  will  admit,  most  distinguished  authority.8 

1  "  Smithsonian  Contr.  to  Knowledge,"  ii.,  p.  83,  1851. 

*  "  Mounds  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  "  Memoirs  of  the  Kentucky  Geological 
Survey,"  vol.  II.,  1883. 

1  The  earthworks  ' '  differ  less  in  kind  than  in  degree  from  other  remains 
respecting  which  history  has  not  been  entirely  silent." — HAVEN.  "  There  is 
nothing  indeed  in  the  magnitude  and  structure  of  our  western  mounds  which  a 
semi-hunter  and  semi-agricultural  population,  like  that  which  may  be  ascribed 
to  the  ancestors  or  Indian  predecessors  of  the  existing  race,  could  not  have  ex- 
ecuted."— SCHOOLCRAFT.  "  All  these  earthworks — and  I  am  inclined  to  assert 
the  same  of  the  whole  of  those  in  the  Atlantic  States  and  the  majority  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley — were  the  production,  not  of  some  mythical  tribe  of  high 
civilization  in  remote  antiquity,  but  of  the  identical  nations  found  by  the  whites 
residing  in  these  regions." — BRINTON.  "  No  doubt  that  they  were  erected  by 
the  forefathers  of  the  present  Indians." — Gen.  LEWIS  CASS.  "  Nothing  in 
them  which  may  not  have  been  performed  by  a  savage  people." — GALLATIN. 
"  The  old  idea  that  the  mound  builders  were  peoples  distinct  from  and  other 
than  the  Indians  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  and  their  progenitors, 
appears  unfounded  in  fact,  and  fanciful." — C.  C.  JONES.  "  Mound  builders 
were  tribes  of  American  Indians  of  the  same  race  with  the  tribes  now  living." 
— Judge  M.  F.  FORCE.  "  The  progress  of  discovery  seems  constantly  to 
diminish  the  distinction  between  the  ancient  and  modern  races  ;  and  it  may 


132  PKE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

It  is  not  asserted  that  the  mounds  were  built  by  any  par- 
ticular tribe,  or  at  any  particular  period,  nor  that  each  and 
every  tribe  of  the  Mississippi  valley  erected  such  structures, 
nor  that  there  were  not  differences  of  culture  and  pro- 
ficiency in  the  arts  between  different  tribes  of  mound 
builders  as  between  the  modern  Indian  tribes  now  known. 

All  that  can  be  claimed  is  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
mounds  beyond  the  power  of  such  people  as  inhabited  the 
region  when  discovered ;  that  those  people  are  known  to 
have  constructed  many  of  the  mounds  now  or  recently  exist- 
ing, and  that  there  is  no  evidence  that  any  other  or  different 
people  had  any  hand  in  the  construction  of  those  mounds 
in  regard  to  which  direct  historical  evidence  is  wanting. 

"  Summing  up  the  results  that  have  been  attained,  it  may 
be  safely  said  that,  so  far  from  there  being  any  a  priori  rea- 
son why  the  red  Indians  could  not  have  erected  these  works, 
the  evidence  shows  conclusively  that  in  New  York  and  the 
Gulf  States  they  did  build  mounds  and  embankments  that 
are  essentially  of  the  same  character  as  those  found  in 
Ohio." 

"  In  view  of  these  results,  and  of  the  additional  fact  that 
these  same  Indians  are  the  only  people,  except  the  whites, 
who,  so  far  as  we  know,  have  ever  held  the  region  over 
which  these  works  are  scattered,  it  is  believed  that  we  are 
fully  justified  in  claiming  that  the  mounds  and  inclosures  of 
Ohio,  like  those  in  New  York  and  the  Gulf  States,  were  the 
work  of  the  red  Indians  of  historic  times,  or  of  their  imme- 
diate ancestors.  To  deny  this  conclusion,  and  to  accept  its 
alternative,  ascribing  these  remains  to  a  mythical  people  of 
a  different  civilization,  is  to  reject  a  simple  and  satisfactory 
explanation  of  a  fact  in  favor  of  one  that  is  far-fetched  and 
incomplete,  and  this  is  neither  science  nor  logic." — (Carr, 
/.  c.,  p.  107.) 

not  be  very  wide  of  the  truth  to  assert  that  they  were  the  same  people." — 
LAPHAM.     See  CARR,  /.  c.,  p.  4,  note. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

POTTERY,   WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS   OF    THE   MOUND 
BUILDERS. 

THE  humblest  forms  of  ceramic  art  were  among  the  first 
inventions  of  the  human  race.  Dishes  of  some  sort  are  in- 
dispensable for  holding  the  food  of  man,  and  no  matter  how 
remote  the  age  to  which  we  look  back,  we  find  them  among 
the  relics  telling  of  his  presence.  They  were  used  in  re- 
ligious ceremonies  ;  they  played  a  part  in  funereal  honors  in 
countries  differing  greatly  from  each  other,  and  in  accordance 
with  a  sacred  rite  they  were  placed  beside  the  dead.  A 
potter's  college  was  founded  at  Rome  by  Numa ;  a  family 
of  potters,  workmen  of  the  king,  is  mentioned  in  the  gene- 
alogy of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes 
speaks  of  them  seated  near  the  wheel  that  they  turn  with 
their  feet.  Agathocles,  King  of  Sicily,  according  to  Dio- 
dorus  Siculus,  gave  to  his  friends  vases  of  precious  metals, 
telling  them  that  they  were  copied  from  earthenware  models 
fashioned  by  himself  when  he  was  a  potter  ;  and  every  one 
has  heard  of  the  curious  pottery  discovered  at  Troy  by  Dr. 
Schliemann.  The  most  beautiful  belonged  to  the  town  of 
Dardanus,  of  which  it  is  related  that  it  was  destroyed  by  his 
grandson  Hercules.1  All  these  sorts  of  pottery,  however, 
show  an  already  considerable  advance  in  ceramic  art,  and  we 
are  doubtless  far  from  any  knowledge  of  the  very  first  essays 
of  this  description  ;  they  would  be  too  coarsely  executed  and 
too  badly  baked  to  have  been  preserved  to  our  day.  In  the 
earliest  days  of  his  existence,  man  must  have  observed  the 
adhesiveness  and  plasticity  of  the  damp  clay  lying  at  his 
feet."  Chance  perhaps  in  the  first  instance  may  have  led 

1 "  Iliad,"  Book  V.,  verse  642. 

*  "  Clay  is  a  material  so  generally  diffused,  and  its  plastic  nature  so  easily  dis- 

133 


134  PRE-HISTORlC  AMERICA. 

him  to  knead  it ;  a  ball,  the  plaything  of-  the  moment,  flung 
hastily  away,  may  have  been  hardened  by  the  powerful  rays 
of  the  sun.  The  impressions  made  upon  it  resembled  those 
in  the  rock,  where  the  same  man  went  to  draw  the  water  he 
needed.  Facts  such  as  these  could  not  have  escaped  his  ob- 
servation, and  appealed  to  the  love  of  imitation  innate  in 
human  nature.  Fire  was  found  to  dry  his  rude  pots  quicker 
than  the  sun,  and  man  learned  to  turn  it  to  account.  The 
cooking  of  his  food  was  one  of  man's  first  advances,  and  was 
once  considered  as  the  primary  distinction  between  him  and 
an  animal  ;  observation  supplemented  by  reflection  must 
have  led  him  to  encase  in  earth  the  food  or  the  calabashes 
he  submitted  to  the  heat  of  his  fire.  Goguet  relates  that  in 
1503  Captain  Gonneville  visited  some  Indians  who  had 
amongst  them  wooden  dishes,  which  they  covered  with  a 
thick  coating  of  clay  before  putting  them  near  the  fire.1 
Cook  mentions  2  dishes  seen  at  Unalashka  "  made  of  a  flat 
stone  with  sides  of  clay  not  unlike  a  standing  pye."  In 
other  places  pots  have  been  met  with  which  appear  to  have 
been  hardened  by  putting  red-hot  coals  in  the  interior.3 

The  natives  of  Murray  Island  cook  their  food  in  a  hole  dug 
in  the  earth,  which  they  are  careful  to  line  with  well  kneaded 
clay  before  lighting  the  fire.  The  Indians  of  the  Gulf  of 
Florida  moulded  their  pottery  on  gourds,  and  to  support  the 
large  pots  until  baked  they  covered  them  with  baskets  made 
of  rushes,  creepers,  or  even  of  netting,  the  marks  of  which 
on  the  baked  clay  can  still  be  made  out.4  Some  must  have 
been  moulded  on  or  in  coarse  tissues,  or  wooden  moulds, 
which  were  destroyed  in  the  baking,  though  indelible 

covered,  that  the  art  of  working  it  does  not  exceed  the  intelligence  of  the 
rudest  savage."  Birch  :  "  Ancient  Pottery,"  Introduction,  p.  i. 

1(1  Memoire  touchant  1'etablissement  d'une  mission  chretienne  dansle  troisi- 
eme  monde,  autrement  appele  la  Terre  Australe,"  Paris,  1663,  published  by 
the  Abbe  Paulmier  de  Gonneville,  one  of  the  descendants  of  the  captain. 

2"  Voyage  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,"  1784,  vol.  II.,  p.  511. 

*One  of  these  can  be  seen  in  the  Peabody  Museum.  It  is  marked  No.  7,750 
in  the  catalogue. 

4Rau:  "Indian  Pottery,"  Smiths.  Contr.,  1866.  Tylor  :  "Early  History 
of  Mankind,"  p.  73. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  13$ 

traces  of  them  exist  to  this  day.  Many  methods  may  have 
been  employed  in  the  fabrication  of  the  first  pottery ; 
probably  all  were  tried  and  led  to  or  perfected  this  useful 
discovery. 

As  already  stated,  fragments  of  pottery  have  been  found 
in  America  in  the  caves  which  were  the  first  dwelling-places 
of  man,  under  the  shell-heaps  which  bear  witness  to  his  long 
sojourn ;  but  it  is  chiefly  in  the  mounds,  and  above  all  in  the 
sepulchral  mounds,  that  the  most  important  specimens  have 
been  found. 

Funeral  vases  date  from  the  most  remote  antiquity.  The 
belief  in  immortality,  with  which  human  nature  is  so  deeply 
imbued,  is  vividly  revealed.  Man,  however  savage,  however 
degraded  we  may  suppose  him  to  be,  looks  confidently  be- 
yond this  life,  which  for  him  passes  so  rapidly  away.  He 
does  not  admit  that  he  is  to  disappear  for  ever,  like  the  grass 
he  treads  beneath  his  feet,  or  the  animals  subject  to  his 
needs  or  his  pleasures.  His  imagination  doubtless  does  not 
soar  beyond  the  enjoyments  of  a  purely  material  existence, 
free  from  work  and  anxiety  ;  but  he  endeavors  to  assure  to 
those  he  has  loved  here  that  existence  in  the  unknown  world 
to  which  death  has  taken  them.  Hence  the  numerous  and 
varied  objects  found  in  tombs,  secret  tokens  left  by  men  of 
every  age  and  every  clime. 

It  is  in  the  valleys  of  the  Missouri  and  its  tributaries  that 
we  meet  with  the  pieces  of  pottery  most  interesting  alike  in 
their  form  and  ornamentation.1  The  country  had  been  in- 
habited by  men  owning  towns,  a  government,  a  religious 
system,  and  artistic  tastes — tribes  more  advanced  in  culture 
than  many  of  their  relatives  the  Indians  with  whom  the 
French,  the  first  explorers  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Mis- 
souri, had  later  to  contend.  St.  Louis,  one  of  the  towns 
founded  by  the  French,  is  sometimes  called  Mound  City,  on 
account  of  the  number  of  mounds  surrounding  it,  and  which 
long  remained  unnoticed  by  the  rough  laborers  who  were 

1  E.  Evers  :  "  Ancient  Pottery  of  Missouri,"  Saint  Louis  Academy  of  Sciences, 
1880.  Conant :  "  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races,"  Saint  Louis,  1879. 


1 36  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

the  first  colonists  of  the  country.  Judging  from  the  objects 
they  contain,  these  mounds  are  less  ancient  than  those  of 
Ohio  or  of  Wisconsin.  The  fragments  of  pottery  found  in 
them  are  innumerable.  One  mound  is  mentioned  in  which 
more  than  a  thousand  specimens  have  been  collected.1  The 
burial-places  excavated  at  Sandy  Woods  have  yielded  nearly 
as  many.8  Some  suppose  the  numerous  fragments  found  in 
some  parts  of  Michigan  to  point  to  the  existence  of  actual 
manufactories.8  The  collections  of  the  St.  Louis  Academy 
contain  four  thousand  carefully  selected  specimens,  and 
doubtless  a  very  much  greater  number  must  have  been  des- 
troyed and  scattered  before  their  importance  was  suspected. 
In  the  state  of  Vermont,  for  instance,  only  six  pieces  are 
mentioned  as  intact  amongst  all  those  discovered.4  These 
fragments,  which  have  defied  the  wear  and  tear  of  centuries, 
are  the  imperishable  witnesses  of  men,  the  very  memory  of 
whom  has  been  completely  lost  to  those  who  succeeded 
them. 

The  pottery  manufactured  in  America  was  evidently 
very  superior  to  that  produced  in  Europe  during  the  same 
period  of  development.6  It  is  also  probable  that  many  of 
the  numerous  fragments  of  which  we  were  unable  to  fix  the 
date  belong  to  very  remote  epochs.  They  are  rarely  as- 
sociated with  metal  objects,  and  the  only  weapons  of  the 
Mound  Builders  were  hatchets,  knives,  or  arrows  of  stone, 

1  This  number  need  not  surprise  us.  Who  does  not  know  the  hill  at  Rome 
formed  entirely  of  fragments  of  the  pottery  of  the  ancient  Romans,  and,  to 
quote  but  one  other  example,  at  Aries  fragments  have  been  found  in  sufficient 
quantities  for  the  embankments  of  the  railway  crossing  the  northern  part  of 
the  Camargue  to  be  exclusively  formed  of  them,  for  a  distance  of  about  one  and 
a  quarter  miles. 

*  W.  P.  Potter:  "Arch.  Remains  in  S.  E.  Missouri,"  Saint  Louis  Acad.  of 
Sciences,  1 880. 

8  Gillman  :  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  I. 

4  G.  H.  Perkins :  "  General  Remarks  upon  the  Arch,  of  Vermont,"  Proc. 
Am.  Assoc.  for  the  Advancemenl  of  Science,  St.  Louis,  1878. 

*  Among  none  of  the  Western  nations  of  Europe,  not  even  among  the  Swiss 
Lake  Dwellers,  whose  civilization  was  in  some  respects  far  advanced,  do  we 
know  of  these  little  figures  representing  either  men  or  animals. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  137 

which  resemble  alike  in  form  and  workmanship  those  of 
Europe,  dating  from  the  period  to  which  archaeologists  have 
given  the  name  of  the  Stone  age. 

The  pottery  of  the  Mound  Builders  was  manufactured  of  a 
clay  of  a  fairly  dark  gray  color,  sometimes  verging  on  blue ; 
to  give  this  clay  more  consistency  the  potter  mixed  it  in 
Mississippi  with  sand  and  fragments  of  shells,  in  Vermont 
with  bits  of  quartz,  mica,  or  feldspar,  and  in  other  places 
with  little  nodules  of  carbonate  of  lime.'  The  thickest  and 
clumsiest  of  the  pieces  were  the  only  ones  in  which  this 
precaution  was  not  taken.  On  the  other  hand  the  finer 
pieces  of  pottery  were  mixed  with  gypsum,  by  which  means 
lighter  shades  of  color  were  obtained.  When  sufficiently 
kneaded  and  shaped  to  the  form  required,  the  workman 
smoothed  the  surface  with  his  hand  and  dried  the  vase, 
probably  first  in  the  sun  and  later  in  a  fierce  fire,  which  was 
a  very  imperfect  mode  of  baking.  In  their  remarkable  work 
on  the  mounds  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  Squier  and  Davis 
assert  the  existence  of  real  ovens,"  intended  for  baking  pot- 
tery. Other  explorers  speak  of  similar  ovens  near  Cedar 
City,  which  rises  from  the  ruins  of  an  old  Aztec  town.3 
Nothing  however,  proves  them  to  be  of  very  remote  an- 
tiquity, and  it  is  probable  that  their  construction  indicates  a 
progress  that  time  alone  could  have  brought  about.  Neither 
is  it  impossible  that  the  ancient  Americans  employed  a  pro- 
cess till  quite  recently  in  use  amongst  the  Indians  of  Cali- 
fornia, who  placed  the  pieces  of  pottery  to  be  baked  in  large 
holes  dug  in  the  earth,  and  heated  by  means  of  fires  made  of 
blazing  chips  of  wood.4  Other  methods  too  may  have  been 
adopted ;  but  with  regard  to  them  as  with  those  just  men- 
tioned nothing  positive  can  be  asserted. 

1  W.  de  Hass  :  "  Arch,  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  Proc.  Am.  Assoc.,  Chicago, 
1868. 

'"An.  Mon.  of  the  Mississippi  Valley."  Bancroft  says:  "Pottery  kilns 
were  found  in  the  South  ;  but  that  they  were  the  work  of  the  Mound  Builders 
has  not  been  satisfactorily  proven." — "  The  Native  Races,"  Vol.  IV.,  p.  780. 

1  Remy  and  Brenchley  :  "  A  Journey  to  Great  Salt  Lake  City."  London, 
1861. 

4  Schumacher:  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1879,  vol.  II.,  p.  521,  et  seq. 


138  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA, 

It  was  later  too  that  the  native  races  of  America  employed 
moulds.  This  method  was  certainly  known  to  the  Mexicans 
and  Peruvians,  the  moulds  found  in  very  different  places 
leave  no  doubt  as  to  that  point ;  but  moulding  must  have 
been  preceded  by  a  long  course  of  tentative  efforts.  We 
have  mentioned  gourds,  baskets  of  canes  or  creepers,  coated 
inside  or  outside  with  clay  and  then  subjected  to  heat. 
Such  were  doubtless  the  earliest  attempts  ;  numerous  frag- 
ments that  have  been  collected  bear  marks  of  their  origin, 
and  in  the  dough  there  are  bits  of  charcoal  which  probably 
originated  in  the  vegetable  substances  employed.1  It  would 
be  impossible  to  name  all  the  methods  employed,  but  it  may 
be  imagined  that  they  would  vary  according  to  time  and 
place.  The  pottery  of  Missouri  was  superior  to  that  of 
Ohio,  that  of  Kentucky  or  that  of  Virginia  cannot  compare 
with  that  of  Illinois,  and  that  of  Michigan  is  probably  the 
coarsest  of  all.  If,  which  is  not  certain,  these  pieces  of 
pottery  date  from  the  same  epoch,  the  differences  between 
them  are  explained  by  the  rarity,  perhaps  even  the  total  ab- 
sence, of  communication  between  tribes  scattered  over  vast 
stretches  of  country,  and  absorbed  in  the  material  difficul- 
ties of  life. 

The  size  of  the  pots  naturally  varies  according  to  their 
purpose.  Some  hold  a  few  pints,  others  several  quarts. 
Cockburn,  one  of  the  few  travellers  who  during  the  last  cen- 
tury succeeded  in  crossing  the  continent  from  the  Gulf  of 
Honduras  to  the  Great  South  Sea,"  mentions  one  which  held 
ten  gallons,  and  others  yet  larger  may  be  found,  especially 
among  the  Pueblo  people  and  other  tribes  of  New  Mexico. 

The  potter's  wheel  seems  to  have  been  unknown  in  North 

1  Prof.  Swallow  verified  this  fact  in  his  excavations  of  Big  Mound  .(Fig.  31). 
"  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  I. 

*"A  Journey  Overland,  from  the  Gulf  of  Honduras  to  the  Great  South 
Sea."  London,  1735.  In  1527  four  of  the  companions  of  Pamfilo  de  Narvaez, 
after  the  failure  of  their  efforts  at  colonization  in  Florida,  started  from  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  for  the  Pacific.  This  first  transcontinental  expedition  took  nine 
years,  and  was  accomplished  at  the  cost  of  extraordinary  sufferings,  of  which  an 
account  has  been  given  by  Cabe9a  de  Vaca,  one  of  the  explorers.  "  Ternaux 
Compans,"  vol.  VII.,  first  series.  Perkins:  Am.  Assoc.,  Buffalo,  1876. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,    AND   ORNAMENTS.  139 

as  well  as  in  South  America.  Considering,  however,  the 
finish  and  symmetry  of  certain  specimens  which  have  come 
down  to  us,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  workmen  had  no 
mechanical  process  by  means  of  which  to  ensure  uniformity 
of  pressure.  Such  was  the  opinion  of  eminent  archaeologists, 
after  an  attentive  examination  of  several  pieces  of  pottery 
found  in  excavations  made  near  New  Madrid.1  Unfortu- 


FIG.  39. — Bottle  of  baked  clay  found  in  a  mound  in  Missouri. 

nately  these  specimens  fell  to  pieces  as  soon  as  they  were  ex- 
posed to  the  air,  so  that  further  examination  is  impossible, 
and  the  problem  remains  unsolved. 

The  great  varieties  of  form  assumed  by  American  pottery 
resemble  strangely  these  of  the  Old  World,  alike  of  pre-his- 
toric  *  and  of  modern  times.8  Everywhere,  we  repeat,  the  same 

'Conant :  "  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races." 

*  The  pieces  of  pottery  found  under  the  mounds  may  be  compared  especially 
with  those  from  the  covered  way  of  West  Kennet,  Wiltshire,  England. 

'In  March,  1882,  a  Japanese  book  containing  a  description  of  the  shell 
mounds  of  Omori,  Japan,  was  presented  to  the  Anthropological  Society. 
Numerous  fragments  of  pottery  were  found  at  Omori,  and  their  resemblance  to 
those  of  the  American  mounds  was  very  striking. 


140 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


needs  have  led  man  to  make  the  same  efforts  of  intelligence 
and  to  produce  the  same  creations  of  industry.  Some  of 
these  vases  are  painted,  the  colors  chiefly  employed  being 
black  and  very  dark  gray.  Red,  yellow,  white,  and  brown 
vases  are,  however,  met  with  ;  these  colors,  being  generally 
added  after  baking,  have  little  stability,  and  in  spite  of  every 
precaution  they  scale  off  or  are  rubbed  out  very  rapidly. 
Sometimes  the  ornaments  stand  out  in  different  colors,  al- 
ways shaded  with  great  taste,  as  proved  by  numerous  ex- 


FIG.  40. — Jar  found  in  a  Ohio  mound. 

amples  which  might  be  given.1  One  little  vase  about  eight 
inches  high  is  decorated  with  black  and  red  lines  on  the  neck 
and  red  and  white  on  the  body.  Another  has  six  concentric 
circles  of  red  and  white  alternately,  and  in  the  centre  of 
each  circle  a  St.  Andrew's  cross  in  white.  One  bottle  has 
rays  of  equal  size  in  brown,  white,  and  bright  red  (fig.  39). 
A  vase  from  Ohio  merits  representation  (fig.  40),  on  account 

1  Those  who  are  especially  interested  in  this  question  may  consult  a  recent 
work,  Dr.  Ed.  Evers'  "  Contributions  to  the  Archaeology  of  Missouri,"  part  I., 
Pottery.  Salem,  Massachusetts,  1880.  We  have  borrowed  largely  from  it. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,    AND   ORNAMENTS.  141 

of  its  complicated  ornamentation,  in  which  some  think  they 
can  make  out  a  bird's  head.  It  is  the  same  with  a  vase  found 
in  Arkansas  and  decorated  with  finely  executed  representa- 
tions of  bones  of  the  dead  (fig.  41).'  Some  pieces  of  pottery 
recently  found  and  deposited  in  the  St.  Louis  museum  are 
said  to  recall,  in  the  figures  with  which  they  are  decorated, 
Egyptian  or  Etruscan  art.  These  figures  have  not  yet  been 
published,  so  that  we  must  content  ourselves  with  mention- 


FlG.  41. — Vases  from  the  tumuli  of  Arkansas. 

ing  the  fact,  reserving  our  opinion  until  further  information 
is  obtained.  In  the  course  of  this  work  we  shall  have 
occasion  to  refer  to  other  no  less  curious  and  important 
resemblances. 

We  do  not  know  what  was  the  substanca  employed  in 
coloring  potter}7,  but  some  red  ochre  has  been  found  in  a 

'We  reproduce  this  curious  vase,  but  we  believe  it  to  date  from  a  less  ancient 
period.  The  same  style  of  decoration  is,  howjever,  met  with  amongst  the 
aborigines  of  America,  and  Bancroft  speaks  of  a  stone  seen  at  Nohpat,  Yucatan, 
on  which  are  engraved  representations  of  human  skulls  and  cross-bones. 


142  PRE-HISTORIC   AMERICA. 

vase,  which  may  have  been  used  for  this  purpose.  Some  of 
the  colors  seem  to  have  been  fixed  by  means  of  a  varnish,  of 
which  traces  are  supposed  to  have  been  found.1  This  pro- 
cess was  certainly  known  to  the  Mexicans  and  the  Peruvians, 
but  it  was  more  rarely  employed  by  the  Mound  Builders. 
We  are  ignorant  as  to  what  this  glaze  was  made  of.  One 
thing  only  is  certain,  that  the  metallic  varnish  used  in  mod- 
ern potteries,  and  that  of  more  complicated  composition 
employed  for  porcelain,  were  introduced  by  the  Spaniards, 
and  no  discovery  thus  far  made  in  America  permits  us  to 
attribute  a  knowledge  of  it  to  the  ancient  inhabitants. 
Some  Americans  mention  an  earthenware  vase  covered  with 


FIG.  42. — Vase  found  under  a  sepulchral  mound  in  Missouri. 

a  siliceous  varnish,  found  in  a  mound  of  Florida;  but  the 
circumstances  of  the  discovery  leave  no  doubt  as  to  the 
mound  having  been  disturbed.  In  Europe  enamelled 
ceramic  work  was  known  in  the  most  remote  antiquity,  and 
in  Egypt  we  find  vases,  statuettes,  and  amulets  of  glazed 
porcelain  dating  from  the  earliest  dynasties. 

The  ornamentation  of  these  vases,  generally  very  simple, 
usually  consists  of  several  rows  of  dots,  such  as  can  be  seen 

1  Bancroft  (vol.  IV.,  p.  714)  says  :  "  To  this  day  some  of  it  retains  a  very 
perfect  glaze."  Caspar  Castano  de  Sosa  ("  Mem.  del  Descubrimiento,  del 
Reino  de  Leon,"  1590)  speaking  of  the  pottery  of  the  pueblos  of  New  Mexico, 
says  :  "  Tienen  mucha  loza  de  los  colorados  y  pintadas  y.  negras,  platos,  caxe- 
tes  saleros,  almoficos,  xicaras,  muy  galanas  alguna  de  la  loza  esta  vidriada." 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  143 

on  the  earliest  pottery  of  Europe,  and  executed,  as  those 
were,  either  with  the  potter's  nail,  with  the  end  of  a  pointed 
instrument,  a  bit  of  wood  or  a  shell,  which  give  a  distinct 
mark  without  a  jagged  edge.  In  other  examples  we  have 
more  complicated  combinations,  lines,  circles,  ellipses,  cres- 
cents, wolf's  teeth,  zig-zags  tastily  arranged,  so  as  to  obtain 
the  happiest  effects  (fig.  42).  Sometimes  on  the  neck  or  body 
of  the  vase  was  the  figure  of  a  rope  or  a  creeper.  Gillman 
mentions  several  pieces  of  pottery  decorated  in  this  manner, 
notably  those  found  at  Fort  Wayne.1  Some  vases  have 


FIG.   43. — Vase   found    in  the  excavations  in   Missouri,  with  ornaments  in 
relief  painted  in  red  of  various  shades. 

denticulated  or  fringed  edges  ;  in  others  the  ornaments  are 
in  relief  (fig.  43).  These  relievos  were  obtained  either  by 
moulding  the  clay  itself  or  by  the  application  of  moulds  be- 
fore baking.  Numbers  of  these  vases  had  handles,  and  these 
handles  often  represented  birds,  mammals,  such  as  the  wolf, 
the  fox,  and  further  south  the  llama,  and  even  human  figures. 
It  would  take  a  long  time  to  describe  all  the  varieties ;  as  it 

1  "  Proc.  Am.  Assoc.,"  Buffalo,  1876.  This  mode  of  ornamentation  was  fre- 
quently employed  in  Maine,  Massachusetts,  Missouri,  Illinois,  Ohio,  Tennessee 
and  Florida.  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1872. 


144  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

is  evident  that  the  potters  were  always  at  work,  striving  to 
satisfy  their  artistic  tastes.  They  appear,  however,  to  have 
been  held  in  small  esteem  in  Central  America,  if  we  are  to 
accept  the  words  of  the  Popol  Vuh1 :  "  You  will  no  longer 
be  fit  for  any  thing  but  to  make  earthenware  things,  such  as 
pie-dishes  or  saucepans,  or  to  cultivate  maize ;  and  the 
beasts  that  live  in  the  shrubbery  will  be  your  only  portion." 
Any  description  of  this  pottery  is  difficult,  if  not  impossi- 
ble. It  is  as  if  one  attempted  to  describe  all  the  things  now 
to  be  found  in  the  shop  of  a  famous  dealer  in  crockery.  We 


FIG.  44. — Bottle  or  vase,  with  a  neck  of  remarkable  delicacy  ;  New  Madrid, 
Missouri  ;  8-J-  inches  high. 

will  endeavor  to  class  the  vases  found  under  the  mounds, 
according  to  the  shape  of  the  specimens  and  the  purpose  for 

"The  Popol  Vuh,  the  name  of  which  maybe  translated  "Collection  of 
Leaves,"  is  written  in  the  Qquiche  language,  and  was  discovered  in  the  second 
half  of  the  i6th  century,  by  a  Dominican  monk  in  a  village  of  Guatemala.  It 
contains  several  details  strangely  resembling  those  of  Genesis,  and  some  have 
seen  in  them  an  adaptation,  by  a  pious  fraud,  of  Indian  mythologies  to 
the  dogmas  of  Christianity.  Such  was  not  the  opinion  of  Brother  Ximenes, 
who  was  the  first  to  reproduce  the  Popol  Vuh,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  call 
it  the  work  of  the  Devil.  It  was  republished  at  Vienna  in  1857  by  Dr.  C. 
Scherzer,  and  in  1861  the  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  who  characterized 
it  as  a  sacred  book,  issued  it  again.  The  original  text  is  not  extant ;  it  was 
evidently  written  or  corrected  after  the  Spanish  conquest,  for  one  of  the 
Indian  chiefs  is  mentioned  by  his  Spanish  name.  In  spite,  therefore,  of  M. 
Brasseur  de  Bourbourg's  opinion,  we  can  place  but  a  very  limited  reliance  on 
this  book. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,    AND   ORNAMENTS.  145 

which  they  seem  to  have  been  intended ;  we  shall  then  have 
certain  data  to  go  upon. 

Perhaps  more  vases  with  necks  have  been  found  than  any 
other  kind.  They  were  probably  used  to  hold  liquids;  most 
of  them  are  black  and  carefully  moulded ;  they  recall  the 
vases  known  to  travellers  as  "  monkeys,"  still  used  by  the 
Spaniards  and  the  inhabitants  of  South  America,  to  keep 
their  drinking-water  cool  (figs.  39,  44,  and  46).  The  porosity 
of  the  clay  leads  to  evaporation,  hence  rapid  cooling.  Some 


FIG.  45. — Vase  found  in  a  child's  grave  in  Tennessee. 

vessels  have  a  swelling  at  the  base  ;  others  are  ovoid  and  are 
pierced  with  lateral  holes  through  which  were  passed  cords 
to  hang  the  vases  up  by.  We  give  a  representation  of  a 
vase  with  three  feet  (fig.  45),  discovered  beneath  a  mound  in 
Tennessee  which  had  served  as  the  grave  of  a  child.  It 
is  black  and  was  merely  baked  in  the  sun ;  the  feet  are 
hollow  and  connected  with  the  body  of  the  vase.'  Others 

1  Putnam  :  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1878,  vol.  II.  Dr.  Habel  ("  Smith. 


146  PRE-IIISTORIC  AMERICA. 

have  been  found  provided  with  a  stopper,  also  of  earthen- 
ware ;  one  of  them  still  contained  the  traces  of  a  red 
liquid  that  could  not  be  analyzed.1  The  ornamentation 


FIG.  46. — Vase  with  spiral  grooving  in  the  Museum  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences,  St.  Louis. 


FlG.  47. — Vase  found  in  a  grave  in  Missouri. 


Cont.,"  vol.  XXII.),  speaks  of  similar  vases  near  San  Salvador,  and  in  Nicara- 
gua.    The  feet  enclose  little  clay  balls.     Bancroft  (vol.  IV.,  p.  19),  also  men- 
tions some  found  under  the  huacas  of  Chiriqui. 
1  Conant :     "  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races." 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,    AND   ORNAMENTS.  147 

is  very  varied  and  resembles  that  we  have  before  described. 
The  St.  Louis  museum  possesses  amongst  other  specimens  a 
bottle  (fig.  46),  in  which  we  notice  a  series  of  swellings  and 
depressions,  forming  a  regular  spiral.  Although  the  form  is 
still  graceful  the  vases  used  for  cooking  purposes  are  notice- 
able for  the  coarseness  of  their  execution  and  ornamentation 
(figs.  42,  47,  48,  and  49).  They  generally  have  a  large 


FIG.  48. — Vase  with  handles  from  a  sepulchral  mound  in  Tennessee. 


Fig.  49. — Vessel  with  four  handles,  six  inches  high  by  about  eight  in  diameter. 

opening  sometimes  provided  with  a  cover  to  hasten  boiling. 
Nearly  all  have  one  or  more  handles,  by  means  of  which  they 
can  be  more  easily  moved.  One  is  mentioned  with  a  long 
handle  like  those  of  our  saucepans  (fig.  50);  others  have  the 
edges  pinched  out  so  as  to  form  a  spout  (fig.  51)-  Several 
of  these  vessels  bear  marks  of  long  usage,  and  retain  traces 
of  the  fire  on  which  they  had  been  placed. 


148  P RE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

In  excavations  we  also  often  meet  with  pieces  of  black  earth- 
enware, the  body  of  which  is  elliptical,  of  careful  execution, 
and  having  a  handle  on  one  side  often  representing  a  bird, 
and  on  the' other  a  brim  or  knob  by  which  they  can  the  more 


Fig.  50. — Black  cooking  pot  of  coarse  execution,  found  beneath  a  mound  in 

Missouri. 


Fig.  51. — Vessel  with  a  spout.     Missouri. 

easily  be  held  (fig.  52).  Some  are  almost  completely  closed, 
and  have  but  one  orifice,  large  or  small ;  others  contain 
some  little  pellets  of  clay,  intended  to  make  a  rattling  noise. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,    AND   ORNAMENTS. 


149 


These  vessels  do  not  appear  ever  to  have  been  subjected  to 
the  heat  of  an  oven  ;  hence  the  hypothesis  that  they  may 
have  been  used  as  lamps,  and  their  comparison  with  Etruscan 
or  Roman  lamps.  This  would  certainly  be  an  interesting 
fact,  but  it  appears  to  us  most  improbable  ;  for  the  vases  of 
this  kind  found  as  yet  show  no  traces  either  of  oil  or  of  any 
fatty  matter  used  for  lighting  purposes. 


Fig.  52. — Vessel  found  in  Missouri.     (Half  natural  size.) 


Fig.  53-- 


-Basin,  with  a  rough  attempt  at  ornamentation, 
inches  ;  height,  eight.) 


(Diameter,  nine 


Basins,  generally  pretty  rare,  are  the  coarsest  in  execution 
of  all  the  pottery  preserved  in  the  St.  Louis  museum  ;  from 
which,  without  any  good  foundation,  it  has  been  decided 
that  they  are  of  the  greatest  antiquity.  We  give  illustra- 
tions of  two  of  these  basins  (figs.  53  and  54),  of  different 


150  PRE-niSTORIC  AMERICA. 

forms,  from  which  it  is  easy  to  judge  of  their  use  and  the 
mode  of  their  construction.  They  are  of  black  earthen- 
ware, and  one  of  them  shows  a  rough  attempt  at  ornamenta- 
tion.1 

Cups,  which  doubtless  served  as  drinking-vessels,  are 
small,  round  or  oval,  and  always  provided  with  a  handle, 
often  representing  the  head  of  a  man  or  of  an  animal.  We 


Fig-  54- — Basin  found  in  Missouri  (one  third  natural  size),  in  black  sun-dried 
earthenware,  of  a  somewhat  rare  form. 


Fig.  55. — Drinking-vessel  with  the  head  of  an  owl. 

shall  speak  further  on  of  these  imitations  of  animate  ob- 
jects, but  will  content  ourselves  now  with  mentioning  two 
of  these  cups,  both  from  mounds  near  New  Madrid  ;  the 
handle  of  the  first  (fig.  55)  is  the  head  of  an  owl,  which  is  so 
like  those  found  at  Santorin  or  at  Troy,  that  they  might  be 
mistaken  the  one  for  the  other ;  the  second  (fig.  56)  is  of 

1  A  basin  exactly  similar  has  been  found  in  the  pre-historic  camp  of  Catenoy, 
Oise,  France. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,    AND    ORNAMENTS.  !$! 

very  fine  execution,  and  the  handle  represents  the  head  of 
an  animal. 

We  have  already  stated  how  very  numerous  funeral  vases 
are.  In  certain  sepulchral  mounds  of  Missouri,  as  many  as 
eight  hundred  or  a  thousand  specimens  have  been  found. 
It  is  easy  to  recognize  that  they  had  been  used  in  accordance 
with  some  rite  consecrated  by  usage  or  superstition,  and  the 
form  varies  according  to  whether  the  vase  was  placed  near 
the  head,  the  feet,  or  the  pelvis  of  the  skeleton.  This  posi- 
tion of  the  vases  has  been  noted  especially  at  Sandy  Woods 
settlement.1  In  Tennessee,  the  vases  were  generally  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  body  ;  in  Mississippi,  many  contained 
food  prepared  for  the  deceased. 


FIG.  56. — Drinking-vessel  with  the  head  of  an  animal. 

It  is  the  same  in  other  regions  where  the  food-vessels — such 
is  the  characteristic  name  given  to  them — are  filled  with  the 
shells  of  mollusca,  chiefly  mussels,  or  with  carbonized  fruits, 
amongst  which  some  wild  grapes  are  supposed  to  have  been 
recognized.  These  were  doubtless  provisions  for  the  great 
journey.  In  other  graves  have  been  collected  now  a  shell, 
now  a  fragment  of  a  bone,  now  a  little  vase  of  ovoid  form, 
simple  amulets  intended  to  protect  the  deceased.  Lastly, 
some  urns,  which  must  have  contained  the  ashes  of  the  de- 
parted after  cremation.  One  of  those  found  in  excavations 
in  Utah  shows  the  form  of  most  frequent  occurrence  (fig. 
105.) 

The  number  of  pipes  found   in  mounds  is  very  consider- 

1  W.  P.  Potter:  "Arch.  Remains  in  S.  E.  Missouri,"  St.  Louis  Acad.  of 
Sciences,  1880. 


152  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

able.  We  give  illustrations  of  two :  one  of  them,  found  in 
a  sepulchral  chamber  in  Tennessee,  is  so  like  those  now  in 
use  that  they  might  be  taken  for  each  other  (fig.  57);  the 
other,  a  rough  imitation  of  the  human  figure,  comes  from  a 
mound  in  Missouri  (fig.  58). 


FIG.  57. — Pipe  from  a  sepulchral  chamber  in  Tennessee. 


FIG.  58. — Earthenware  pipe  from  Missouri. 

Dr.  Habel  mentions,   from  near  San  Salvador,   in  Central 
America,1  two  pipes  about  four  inches  high,  with  about  the 

1  "  Smithsonian  Contributions,"  vol.  XXII.  The  same  excavations  have 
yielded  a  considerable  number  of  pieces  of  pottery,  amongst  which  is  an  imita- 
tion of  an  old  man's  head  of  fairly  remarkable  character. 


POTTEKY,    WEAPONS,    AND   ORNAMENTS.  153 

same  diameter,  covered  with  red  and  white  figures.  A  hole 
had  been  made  for  the  introduction  of  the  stem.  This  is  a 
fact  of  rare  occurrence  in  these  regions,  where  the  use  of 
tobacco  was  less  widespread  than  among  the  Mound 
Builders.1 

Some  pieces  of  pottery  represent  fruits  which,  like  pump- 
kins, figs,  or  pears,  are  of  rounded  form.  The  neck  of  a 
bottle  was  often  superposed  upon  such  a  model.  The  imi- 


FIG,  59. — Red  vase  with  neck  and  a  snake  coiled  about  the  body,  found  in 
excavations  in  Missouri. 

tation  is  generally  exact,  and  the  artist  may  have  obtained 
it  either  by  copying  or  by  moulding  the  fruit  before  him. 

These  are  not  the  only  imitations  which  are  hidden  away 
in  graves;  the  mounds  of  Missouri  and  Mississippi  have 
yielded  numerous  representations,  now  of  men,  now  of 
animals.  It  is  noticeable  that  such  are  extremely  rare  in 
the  New  England  States. 

We  may  mention  among  such  forms,  snakes  (fig.  59),  bears 

1  Oviedo  was  the  first  Spanish  writer  to  mention  the  use  of  tobacco.  His 
book,  "  Natural  Historia  de  las  Indi.is,"  was  printed  at  Toledo  in  1529. 


154 


PRE-IIISTORIC  AMERICA. 


(fig.  60?),  pigs  (fig.  61),  fish  (fig.  62),  frogs,  turtles  very  per- 
fectly copied,  and  birds,  including  the  common  brown  owl, 
the  long-eared  owl  and  the  duck.  Ducks  especially  were 
carefully  studied,  and  different  species  are  quite  recognizable. 
Surely  a  very  long  time  must  have  been  required  for  the  art 
to  attain  such  perfection  ;  generations  of  artists  must  have 
been  needed  for  the  creation  of  the  art  itself. 

We  must  not  omit  to  mention  certain  figures  of  animals 
often  found  in  the  mounds.  The  head  resembles  that  of  our 
domestic  pig  ;  but  this  animal  appears  to  have  been  un- 


FlG.  60. — Painted  vase  found  in  a  sepulchral  mound  in  Tennessee. 

known  before  the  Spanish  conquest.1  The  species  most 
nearly  resembling  it  is  the  peccary  (Dicotyles,  Cuvier),  of  the 
hog  family,  which  has  no  tail ;  whilst  the  creature  under 
notice  always  has  one,  and  this  tail  is  often  turned  up. 
Other  authorities  think  the  figure  represents  the  hippopota- 

1  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega  ("  los  Commentarios  reales  que  tratan  del'Origen  delos 
Yncas,  Reyes  que  fueron  del  Peru,"  Lisbon,  1609),  says  that  the  ancient  Peru- 
vians had  pigs  in  their  mountains,  greatly  resembling  those  of  Europe. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  155 

mus,  but  this  pachyderm  has  never,  so  far  as  we  know,  lived 
in  the  New  World.  The  object  intended  is  very  possibly  the 
opossum.  The  size  of  these  vases  varies  greatly.  Some  are 
very  small,  of  yellow  earthenware,  and  covered  with  zigzag 
designs  in  various  colors,  among  which  red  and  white  pre- 
dominate. Others,  on  the  contrary,  those  found  in  the  State 


FIG.  61. — Vase  with  handles,  representing  the  head  of  a  pig. 


FlG.  62. — Vase  of  a  clear  yellow  color,  baked  with  fire.     Missouri. 

of  Vermont  for  instance,  are  capable  of  holding  over  six  gal- 
lons. The  larger  ones  often  have  human  faces  joined  to  the 
hinder  parts  of  animals.  The  animals  thus  represented  are 
not,  however,  as  has  been  supposed,  so  much  alike  that  they 
can  be  taken  to  represent  a  single  characteristic  form. 


PRK-111STORIC  AMERICA. 


Neither  are  representations  of  man  wanting.  Some,  exe- 
cuted with  talent,  arc  true  portraits,  and  each  one,  whatever 
may  be  the  form  of  the-vase  it  is  intended  to  decorate,  presents 
a  very  marked  individual  character  (figs.  63,  64,  and  65). 


FIG.   63. — Drinking-vase,  over  4|  inches   high  by  9  inches  at    its  greatest 

diameter. 


FIG.  64. — Water-bottle,  8|  inches  high,  found  under  a  mound  near  Belntont, 

Missouri. 

The  St.  Louis  museum  possesses  a  bottle,  the  neck  of  which 
has  been  broken,  bearing  four  medallions  representing  human 
figures  incrusted  in  the  clay  before  baking.  A  vase  found 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  1 57 

in  the  very  fruitful  excavations  at  New  Madrid  also  deserves 
mention.     The  figures,  it  is  true,  are  designed  without  art, 


FIG.  65. — Black  pottery  vase.     Missouri. 

but  they  are  valuable  as  showing  the  kind  of  garments  worn 
by  the  Mound  Builders.     The  most  important  represents  a 


FlG.  66. — Figure  in  black  pottery  found  in   Missouri  ;  one  third  natural  size. 

flowing  robe,  or,  to  be  more  exact,  a  blouse  somewhat  like 
those  worn  by  the  French,  drawn  in  at  the  waist  and  reach- 


158  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

ing  to  the  knees.  We  may  also  notice  another  representing 
a  man  lying  on  his  back,  with  the  arms  and  legs  roughly 
imitated.  This  vase  was  emptied  through  a  neck  springing 
from  the  navel  of  the  figure.  In  a  grave  of  Missouri  pieces 
of  pottery  have  been  collected  ornamented  with  designs 
representing  heads,  busts,  and  even  the  entire  bodies  of 
women. 


FIG.  67. — Vase  found  in  Missouri.     A  second  face  is  joined  to  the  back  of  the 
first,  and  the  opening  is  on  one  side  ;  one  fourth  natural  size. 

Side  by  side  with  these  pieces  of  pottery  thousands  of 
others  are  found  with  nothing  human  about  them.  There 
are  also  caricatures.1  That  most  frequently  met  with  repre- 
sents a  crouching  woman,  with  hanging  breasts,  and  arms 
resting  on  the  knees.  The  constant  repetition  of  this  figure 
has  led  to  the  supposition  that  it  was  an  idol — one  of  the 
malevolent  goddesses  whose  anger  had  to  be  averted.  But 
the  want  of  foundation  for  this  conclusion  appears  in  the 
fact  that  the  vases  always  have  an  opening  in  the  back  of  the 

'Such  human  caricatures  are  met  with  in  the  most  divers  localities  ;  among 
other  places  the  island  of  Ometepec,  Lake  Nicaragua,  is  noted  for  them.  (Figs. 
66,  67,  and  68.) 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,    AND   ORNAMENTS.  1 59 

head,  clearly  indicating  that  they  were  used  as  bottles.  We 
may  remark  that  so  far  but  few  indecent  objects  have  been 
found,  though  they  were  numerous  among  the  ancient  peo- 
ples of  Europe  ;  reproductions  of  the  sexual  organs  have 
rarely  come  to  light,1  which  fact  is  an  important  testimony 
to  the  morality  of  these  primitive  people. 

The  disposition  of  the  Mound  Builders  for  copying  forms 
which  they  saw  about  them  is  characteristic  of  many  of  the 
American  races.  So  in  a  less  degree  is  the  superiority  of 
their  pottery.  If  indeed  the  American  mound  pottery 


FIG.  68. — Bottle  representing  a  woman. 

be  compared  with  that  from  the  middens  of  the  Lake  Dwel- 
lers of  Switzerland,  who  are  supposed  to  have  reached  a 
similar  stage  of  civilization,  one  is  astonished  at  the  in- 
feriority of  the  latter.  Lately  excavations  have  been  made 

1  We  may  instance  a  f£w  examples:  "In  altre  provincie,"  said  one  of  the 
companions  of  Cortez,  "  e  particularemente  in  quella  di  Panuco,  adoravano  il 
membro  che  portano  gli  huomini  fra  le  gambe." — "  Relazione  d*  alcune  cose 
della  Nueva  Spagna."  Dr.  Jones  ("  Smith.  Cont.,"  vol.  XXII.)  mentions  a 
phallic  pipe  and  Heywood  a  phallus  found  near  Chillicothe  ("Natural  and 
Aboriginal  Hist,  of  Tennessee,"  p.  115).  Others  are  also  known  which  came 
from  Alameda  county,  California.  In  other  places,  in  Smith  county,  and  in 
the  island  of  Zapatero,  Costa  Rica,  for  instance,  idols  are  spoken  of  with  the 
membrum  virile  in  erectione.  Stephens  tells  of  ornaments  in  several  temples  of 
Yucatan  representing  membra  conjuncta  in  coitu.  Pieces  of  Peruvian  pottery 
of  the  same  kind  are  met  with,  but  they  are  exceptions.  Father  Kircher,  how- 
ever, and  Bancroft  following  him,  believe  in  the  former  existence  in  America 
of  a  Phallic  cultus,  such  as  undoubtedly  existed  in  the  Old  World. 


l6o  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

in  some  tumuli  on  the  practising  ground  of  the  school  of 
artillery  at  Tarbcs,  on  the  borders  of  the  departments  of  des 
Hautes  et  Basses  Pyr6n£es,  where  vases  were  found  dating 
probably  from  Gallo-Roman  times  ;  they  are  inferior  alike  in 
material,  execution,  and  ornamentation  to  those  of  the 
American  races.  It  is  the  same  with  the  vases  found  by 
Chantre  near  Samthravo.1  We  content  ourselves  with 
these  facts,  though  examples  might  be  multiplied.  It  is 
probable  that  the  presence  of  a  good  material  for  pottery 
had  more  or  less  to  do  with  progress  in  ceramic  art,  and  that 
the  absence  of  suitable  clays  accounts  in  part  for  the  wretched 
pottery  of  northeastern  American  races  as  it  certainly  does 
in  the  extreme  northwest  of  the  continent. 

It  may  be  also  remarked  that  the  considerable  differences  in 
execution  between  pieces  of  pottery  found  in  a  single  undis- 
turbed mound  cannot  be  held  to  decide  that  they  do 
not  date  from  the  same  period,  or  that  the  differences 
observed  are  due  to  progress  in  the  manufacture  and  the 
natural  result  of  the  development  of  the  aesthetic  feeling  of 
the  people.  Probably,  we  have  to  deal  with  the  products  of 
the  work  of  more  or  less  skilled  or  more  or  less  intelligent 
artisans,  with  work  intended  for  more  or  for  less  important 
uses,  or,  and  this  is  a  yet  simpler  explanation,  with  the  pot- 
tery of  the  poor  and  of  the  rich.  This  last  is  a  fact  scarcely 
worth  discussing,  for  it  is  one  belonging  to  all  times  and 
every  people. 

The  early  inhabitants  of  America  must  have  been  sturdy 
smokers,2  judging  from  the  number  of  pipes  found  in  mound 
excavations.  Earthenware  pipes  have  been  already  men- 
tioned ;  others  were  carved  of  slate,  soapstone 3  (fig.  69),  and 

'  Revue  d'  Anthrop,,  April,  1881. 

'According  to  Bancroft  (vol.  II.,  p.  288)  the  Americans,  at  the  time  of  the 
Spanish  conquest,  smoked  cigarettes  and  took  snuff.  Ameghino  (vol.  I.,  p.  354) 
in  his  turn  says :  "  Es  del  dominio  publico,  que  el  tabaco,  es  indigene  de 
America." 

"'A  steatite  quarry  has  been  examined  near  Washington,  in  which  the  stone 
had  been  quarried  with  quartzite  pickaxes  ;  dishes  and  cups,  of  which  there 
were  many  fragments,  were  made  of  this  stone.  This  quarry  was  probably  pre- 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,  AND  ORNAMENTS.  l6l 

marble,  more  frequently  still  out  of  a  very  hard  and  resistant 
red  or  brown  porphyry.  Some  are  mere  bowls  quite  prim- 
itive in  form ;  others  represent  various  animals,  such  as  the 
beaver,  the  otter,  deer,  bears,  the  panther,  the  wildcat  (fig. 
70),  the  mud-turtle,  the  raccoon,  squirrels,  toads  and  frogs. 
Birds  are  perhaps  still  more  numerous.  Amongst  them  we 


FIG.  69. — Soapstone  pipe. 

may  mention  herons,  hawks,  the  paroquet,  woodpecker, 
grouse,  and  the  bittern.  On  a  soapstone  pipe  from  Ken- 
tucky an  armadillo  is  supposed  to  have  been  recognized  ;  and 
quite  recently  in  Iowa  a  pipe  has  been  found  made  of  rather 
soft  sandstone,  which  is  claimed  to  represent  an  elephant.1 

It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  such  identifications  gen- 
erally owe  much  to  the  natural  desire  to  recognize  some- 
thing strange  or  unusual,  and  also  to  the  want  of  a  sufficient 
knowledge  of  natural  history.  A  recently  published  in- 
Columbian,  but  the  date  cannot  be  fixed.  Reynolds  :  "  Aboriginal  Soapstone 
Quarries  in  the  District  of  Columbia,"  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum," 
vol.  II. 

1  In  the  American  Antiquarian  (March,  1880),  the  Rev.  S.  D.  Peet  announces 
the  discovery  of  a  pipe  which  he  believes  represents  an  elephant  ;  the  supposed 
trunk  is  straight  and  the  smoke  escapes  through  a  skilfully  contrived  hole. 


1 62  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

vestigation  of  bird-pipes  and  carvings  by  a  well-known  orni- 
thologist has  resulted  in  demolishing  the  foundation  of  much 


FIG.  70. — Pipe  representing  a  wildcat. 


FIG.  71. — Pipe  representing  a  woodpecker,  or  wading  bird. 

theorizing  which  had  been  based  on  the  identical  specimens 
examined.1     Forgeries  are  also  too  common. 

1  H.  W.  Henshaw,  2d  Annual  Rep.  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Washington,  1884. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  163 

These  designs  have  often  represented  the  animal  in  a 
familiar  attitude  and  display  true  artistic  talent.  The  heron 
holds  a  fish  in  its  mouth,  an  otter  also  carries  a  fish,  and 
a  hawk  tears  a  little  bird  with  his  claws.  Seven  heads  have 
been  found  in  the  mounds  of  Ohio  which  are  supposed  to 
represent  the  walrus  or  manatee,  but  are  more  probably 
rudely  carved  otters. 


FIG.    72. — Stone  pipe,   supposed  to  represent  an   elephant,    found  in  Louisa 

county,  Iowa. 

The  toucan,  elephant,  and  armadillo  require  a  warmer  cli- 
mate than  that  of  Ohio  or  Kentucky ;  the  manatee,  so  far  as 
the  United  States  are  concerned,  only  lives  in  Floridian 
waters,  where  it  is  now  extremely  rare,  if  not  extinct  as  a 
resident,  though  in  former  times  abundant. 


FIG.  73. — Pipe  found  in  Ohio,  representing  a  heron  holding  a  fish. 

The  llama,  which  has  been  said  to  be  found  sculptured  on 
rocks  on  the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna,  belongs  to  the  fauna 
of  the  South.  All  accounts  of  these  animals,  in  connection 
with  aboriginal  relics  found  in  the  United  States,  may  there- 
fore be  regarded  either  as  wrong  identifications  of  the  rudely 


164 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


carved  or  mutilated  figures  referred  to,  as  representing  ani- 
mals with  which  the  carvers  had  become  acquainted  either  by 
report  or  by  journeys  and  migrations,  or  as  forgeries. 

At  Mound  City  four  pipes  have  been  dug  out,  each  rep- 
resenting a  human  profile  of  a  very  characteristic  Indian 
type  *  (fig.  74).  One  of  them,  cut  in  a  very  hard  and  compact 
black  stone,  wears  a  peculiar  head-dress.  The  hair  is  plaited, 
and  round  the  forehead  were  fifteen  pearl  beads,  which  had 
been  calcined.  The 'face  is  covered  with  incised  lines,  form- 
ing regular  tatooing,  the  mouth  is  compressed,  the  eyes  are 


FIG.  74. — Pipes  found  at  Mound  City. 

large,  the  ears  are  pierced.  Another  type  represents  a 
woman,  and  may  be  compared  as  far  as  execution  goes  with 
the  Mexican  and  Peruvian  sculptures.4  A  pipe  from  Con- 
necticut represents  the  bust  of  a  woman,  with  the  wrists 
and  shoulders  laden  with  ornaments ;  another,  found  in 

1  Schoolcraft,  vol.  I,  pi.  xiii. 

*  See  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  Book  VI.,  p.  187.  Peter  Martyr  d'  Anghiera  : 
"  De  Novo  Orbe,"  Dec.  187.  Clavigero  :  "  Hist.  Antigua  de  Mejico,"  2  vols., 
8°,  London,  1826. 


POTTERY,  WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  165 

Virginia,  presents  a  type  which  may  be  compared  with  the 
antique  Egyptian  ;  and  yet  another  pipe  from  Missouri,  in 
very  hard  sandstone,  represents  a  man's  head,  with  a  pointed 
beard  somewhat  like  that  seen  in  the  Assyrian  monoliths  of 
the  British  Museum.1  Finally,  one  of  these  pipes,  dis- 
covered in  Indiana,  and  the  last  we  shall  mention,  has  on 
one  side  a  death's  head,  and  on  the  other  that  of  a  goose. 

It  was  long  supposed  that  the  Mound  Builders  applied 
their  lips  to  the  hole  made  in  the  lower  part  of  the  bowl, 
and  thus  inhaled  the  smoke  ;  but  numerous  discoveries  have 
modified  this  opinion.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  wooden 
stems  were  used,  which,  of  course,  would  decay  and  leave 
no  traces.  In  several  places  steatite  stems  have  been  found," 
and  Professor  Andrews  mentions  others  in  earthenware, 
stone,  and  copper,  which  he  found  in  Ohio.8  In  California 
they  are  still  more  numerous, — even  remains  of  wooden 
stems  have  been  found  ;  and  the  Peabody  Museum  posses- 
ses one  such  tube  from  Massachusetts.  Long  ago,  Squier 
spoke  of  similar  stems  in  the  Mississippi  valley,4  and  bone 
tubes  have  been  found  as  far  north  as  Canada.  At  Swanton, 
Vermont,6  an  old  burial-place  has  been  discovered,  in  the 
midst  of  a  forest  where  venerable  trees  replaced  others  yet 
more  ancient.  Here  the  excavations  yielded  numerous 
copper  tubes,  the  length  of  which  varied  from  three  to  four 
inches.  The  sheet  of  copper  had  been  drawn  out,  beaten, 
and  rolled  in  a  manner  giving  a  very  high  idea  of  the  skill 
of  the  workman.  Some  tubes  again  are  of  stone,  without 
ornament ;  on  one,  however,  a  bird  is  engraved  (fig.  75)  re- 
sembling a  spread  eagle." 

1  Am.  Ant.,  Jan.,  1881. 

*  Schoolcraft,  vol.  I.,  p.  93,  pi.  xxxii.  and  xxxiii. 

1  "  Explorations  of  Mounds  in  S.  E.,  Ohio,"  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum," 
1877. 

4  "  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  "  Smith.  Cont.,"  vol.  I., 
p.  224,  fig.  122,  125. 

*  G.  H.  Perkins:   "  On  an  Ancient  Burial-ground  in  Swanton,  Vermont," 
"Rep.  Am.  Assoc.,"  Portland,  1873. 

*  Beneath  the  bird  three  little  marks  can  easily  be   made  out. — (American 
Antiq,,  March,  1880).     These  have  been  supposed  to  be  letters  ;  but  nothing 


1 66  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

What  was  the  use  of  these  tubes,  met  with  in  such  differ- 
ent places  ?  Putnam  thinks  that  a  great  many  of  them  were 
the  stems  of  pipes,1  other  authorities  look  upon  them  as  in- 
struments of  music  ;  several  of  them,  notably  those  found  at 
Swanton,  are,  however,  not  pierced,  which  contradicts  both 
hypotheses  and,  on  the  assumption  that  they  were  finished 
implements,  leaves  us  in  complete  uncertainty.  Rau  thinks 
these  tubes  were  used  in  the  operations  of  medicine-men  or 
sorcerers,  so  numerous  in  Indian  tribes,  and  the  German 
traveller,  Kohl,  states  that  he  saw  a  medicine-man  use  the 
hollow  bone  of  a  wild  goose  to  operate  on  his  patient. 


FlG.  75. — Bird  engraved  on  a  stone  tube  from  Swanton,  Vermont. 

We  have  dwelt  on  every  thing  relating  to  pipes,  because, 
after  the  pottery,  they  are  the  most  important  objects 
hitherto  found,  and  also  because  this  taste  for  modelling 
men  or  animals  is  very  remarkable. 

Besides  the  human  figures  used  as  ornaments  on  pottery 
or  pipes,  we  meet  with  others,  which  have  been  taken  for 
images  of  divinities  supposed  to  be  adored  by  the  early  in- 

as  yet  justifies  us  in  supposing  that  the  Mound  Builders  were  sufficiently  ad- 
vanced in  civilization  to  have  an  alphabet. 

1  This  was  also  Squier's  opinion  after  his  discovery  at  Chillicothe  of  a  tube 
carved  in  slate,  thirteen  inches  long,  ending  in  a  mouthpiece.  "  Ancient  Mon. 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley."  See  also  Cortereal,  "  Voy.  aux  Indes  occidentales," 
Amsterdam,  1722,  vol.  I.,  p.  39. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,    AND   ORNAMENTS.  l6? 

habitants  of  North  America.  In  Tennessee '  many  stone, 
steatite,  sandstone,  and  terra-cotta  figures  have  been  found  ; 
in  Knox  county,  an  image  hewn  out  of  stalactite,  about 
twenty  inches  in  height  and  weighing  over  thirty-seven 
pounds. 

A  female  figure  was  discovered  in  the  Cumberland  valley, 
sculptured  of  brown  sandstone,  eleven  inches  high,  with  the 
sexual  organs  very  prominent ;  in  Honduras  and  Guatemala 
have  been  found  numerous  terra-cotta  statuettes,  called 
maitecas  by  the  present  inhabitants.  All  these  figures  are  of 
somewhat  similar  type,  and  their  execution  is  always  coarse, 
contrasting  unfavorably  with  that  of  the  pottery  and  other 
carvings.  A  good  many  fraudulent  figures  have  turned  up 
from  time  to  time  in  the  United  States,  and  the  authenticity 
of  any  such  image  always  requires  careful  verification.  These 
forgeries  are  the  more  dangerous  since  the  authors  of  them 
often  arrange  that  they  shall  be  "  accidentally  "  found  by 
some  person  whose  good  faith  cannot  be  questioned. 

In  some  "  altar  mounds  "  in  Anderson  township,  near  the 
Little  Miami  River,  Ohio,  Metz  and  Putnam  found  some 
very  remarkable  objects  in  1882.  These  "  altars  "  are  basins 
of  clay  burned  hard,  in  situ,  and  on  them  have  been  found 
thousands  of  articles  which  had  been  thrown  into  the  fire  as 
offerings  or  sacrifices.  Besides  native  copper,  silver,  and  a 
very  little  native  gold,  all  hammered  into  various  shapes,  a 
considerable  amount  of  meteoric  iron,  of  the  variety  known 
as  pallasite,  was  found  on  these  altars.  There  were  orna- 
ments of  bone,  mica,  shell  disks,  canine  teeth  of  the  bear  and 
other  animals,  about  half  a  bushel  of  pearls  (recalling  the 
story  of  De  Soto's  chronicler),  and  about  thirty  of  the  spool- 
shaped  copper  ear-plugs.  On  one  altar  were  found  several 
terra-cotta  figurines  quite  unlike  anything  hitherto  found  in 
the  mounds.  They  are  artistically  superior  to  any  figure- 
work  yet  noted  by  American  aborigines,  and  were  doubtless 

'Jones:  "Smith.  Cont.,"  vol.  XXII.,  p.  128.  It  is  interesting  to  remem- 
ber that  these  supposed  idols  are  of  the  same  type  as  some  of  the  figures  made 
by  the  Toltecs. 


1 68  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA, 

the  product  of  some  workman  of  very  exceptional  talent. 
They  had  represented  in  their  ears  the  plugs  above  men- 
tioned, thus  determining  the  use  of  the  specimens  found. 
With  them  were  two  remarkable  stone  dishes  in  form  of 
animals,  probably  mythical  in  their  nature,  but  admirably 
wrought  and  polished.  These  remarkable  and  unique 
articles  have  been  restored  from  numerous  calcined  and 
splintered  fragments  and  of  their  authenticity  there  is  not 
a  shadow  of  doubt.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will  be  fully 
illustrated  and  described  before  long  by  the  authorities  of 
the  Peabody  Museum  where  they  are  deposited. 

Stone  vases,  or  jars  made  of  steatite,  are  also  met  with,  but 
rarely  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Some  of  these  vases 
have  handles.  In  California  cups  of  serpentine  have  also 
been  found.  Every  thing  was  turned  to  account  by  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants  of  America,  for  in  the  island  of  Santa 
Barbara  plates  have  been  found  hollowed  out  of  the  centra 
of  the  vertebrae  of  large  Cetacea.1  One  may  be  referred  to 
which  was  found  in  a  mound  near  the  Tallahatchee  River, 
Lafayette  county,  Mississippi,  provided  with  a  cover  which 
closed  it  hermetically.  This  jar,  which  is  supposed  to  have 
been  a  funeral  urn,  weighs  more  than  one  hundred  pounds ; 
the  execution  is  remarkable,  the  more  so  when  we  take  into 
account  the  wretched  tools  which  were  all  the  workmen  had 
at  their  command.2 

We  may  also  notice  life-sized  human  masks  in  hard  stone, 
which  have  been  occasionally  found.  We  know  that  the 
Aztecs  made  similar  masks  in  obsidian  or  serpentine,  and 
placed  them  on  the  faces  of  the  dead.  The  same  custom 
prevailed  to  some  extent  further  north,  and  was  character- 
istic of  the  Aleuts  in  historic  times,  though  the  masks  used 
by  them  were  of  wood. 

It  was  by  patient  labor,  rubbing  one  stone  against  another, 
that  the  Mound  Builders  executed  their  sculptures.  The 
Mexicans  and  Peruvians  employed  the  same  processes, 

1  Ch.  Rau  :  "Smith.  Cont.,"  vol.  XXII.,  p.  37. 

2  Jones:  "  Smith.  Cont.,"  vol.  XXII.,  p.  144,  fig.  85. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,    AND   ORNAMENTS.  169 

after  having  first  rough-hewn  the  stone  with  the  help  of 
obsidian  implements.  It  was  natural  that  the  owners  of 
objects  so  laboriously  obtained  should  attach  very  great 
value  to  them,  and  we  do  in  fact  meet  with  pipes  mended 
with  extreme  care.  The  process  was  very  simple :  holes 
were  pierced  at  the  edges  of  the  fracture,  and  little  rivets  of 
wood  or  copper  were  placed  in  them  to  keep  the  pieces  to- 
gether. 

Weapons  which  belonged  to  the  Mound  Builders  are  more 
rare,  and  if  the  extent  and  importance  of  their  fortifications 
had  not  revealed  to  us  the  dangers  which  threatened  them, 
we  might  have  supposed  them  to  have  been  a  peaceful  race, 
entirely  devoted  to  agriculture  or  commerce.  We  can  how- 
ever refer  to  some  very  finely  executed  arrow-points,1  lance- 
heads,  and  daggers.  In  some  places  regular  magazines  have 
been  found,  where  numerous  spear-heads  have  been  col- 
lected. 

We  give  illustrations  of  a  couple  of  serpentine  hatchets 
(figs.  76  and  77),  from  among  a  number  which  are  so  like  the 
neolithic  implements  of  Europe  that  they  might  be  taken 
for  each  other.  Squier  tells  us  that  this  resemblance  is  so 
striking  as  to  lead  at  first  to  the  conclusion  that  they  are 
the  work  of  men  of  the  same  race  ;  which  conclusion  would, 
he  thinks,  be  irresistible  if  we  did  not  know  that  the  wants 
of  man  are  everywhere  the  same,  and  have  everywhere  led 
him  to  give  to  his  implements  the  same  form,  and  to  use 
them  in  the  same  manner.  Similar  implements  are  barely 
out  of  use  in  the  more  remote  parts  of  Alaska. 

Many  knives  or  daggers  are  of  obsidian,  (the  Itzli  of  the 
Mexicans)  which  is  a  glass  of  volcanic  origin  and  was  known 
in  the  most  remote  ages.  Pliny  (book  XXXVI.,  ch.  XXXI.) 
says  that  the  first  fragments  were  found  in  Ethiopia  by  Ob- 
sidius,  hence  the  name  by  which  it  is  known.  Great  quan- 
tities have  been  found  in  Mexico,  and  it  is  known  from 

1  Lucien  Carr  (Exploration  of  a  Mound,  Lee  county,  Virginia  ;  "Report, 
Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  II.,  p.  90)  gives  illustrations  of  a  quartzite  lance- 
point  and  a  chalcedony  dagger. 


I/O 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA, 


Alaska  to  Patagonia.  In  pre-historic  times  not  only  weapons 
were  made  of  it,  but  also  jewels,  ornaments,  and  even  look- 
ing-glasses. 

The  Mexicans,  according  to  Clavigero,  were  such  expert 
workmen  that  they  were  able  to  turn  out  a  hundred  obsidian 
knives  in  an  hour,  which  is  very  probable,  as  they  were 
hardly  more  than  elongated  flakes  of  the  glassy  material. 
The  Mexicans  also  inserted  a  double  row  of  bits  of  obsidian 


FIGS.  76  and  77. — Serpentine  axes. 
A. — Beard's  Mound,  Ohio.  B.— Hill  Mound,  Ohio. 


FlG.  78. — Serpentine  implement  found  beneath  a  mound  near  Big  Harpeth 
River,  Tennessee. 

in  handles  of  very  hard  wood,  and  fastened  them  in  with 
cord  and  gum.  This  weapon  was  wielded  with  both  hands, 
and  the  Spanish  historians  speak  of  the  terrible  havoc  it 
wrought.  The  Mahquahwitl,  as  this  weapon  is  called,  is 
sculptured  on  a  door-post  at  Kabah,  Yucatan.1  Judging 
from  the  fragments  of  obsidian  arranged  in  regular  rows, 
occasionally  met  with  in  graves,  the  Mound  Builders  may 
have  had  a  very  similar  weapon. 

1  Bancroft,  vol.  IV.,  p.  210. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  \J\ 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  distinguish  between  the  weapons 
and  implements  of  these  primitive  times.  Hass  describes  a 
number  of  tools  fashioned  in  amphibolite,  quartzite,  jadeite, 
and  granite,  all  well  made.1  Besides  these  we  hear  of  shell 
fish-hooks,  knives,  borers,  harpoons,  and  bone,  horn,  or  deer- 
horn  needles.2  We  give  illustrations  of  two  implements  of 
peculiar  form,  unknown  in  Europe.  The  first  (fig.  78)  is  of 
serpentine,  eighteen  inches  long,  and  carefully  polished.  It 
was  found  under  a  mound  near  Big  Har- 
peth  River,  Tennessee.  Similar  imple- 
ments have  been  found  in  the  Cumber- 
land valley ;  others  from  South  Carolina 
are  in  the  National  Museum  at  Wash- 
ington ;  their  use  is  unknown.  The 
second  of  which  we  give  an  illustration 
is  of  quartz,  and  comes  from  New  Jersey 
(fig.  79).  This  form  is  frequently  met 
with  in  America,  especially  in  Ohio, 
Wisconsin,  Pennsylvania,  and  the  State 
of  New  York.3  Probably  some  of  these 
implements  were  used  in  tilling  the 
ground ;  in  Utah,  for  instance,  hewn 
stones  have  been  found  of  considerable 
size,  with  horn  handles,  supposed  to 
have  been  agricultural  implements. 
Schumacher  ("  Report,  Peabody  Muse- 
um," vol.  II.,  p.  271)  speaks  of  one  of 
these  implements  measuring  fourteen 
inches  long  by  five  wide. 

In    describing  the  mounds,  we  have  FIG.  79. — Flint  instrument 
spoken    of    numerous    objects    which 

served  either  as  ornaments  of  the  deceased  or  as  burial 
offerings.  These  ornaments  greatly  resemble  each  other 
in  every  region  where  artificial  mounds  have  been  erect- 

1  "Arch,  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  Rep.  Am.  Assoc.,  Chicago,  1868. 
"Potter:  "Arch.  Remains  in  S.  E.   Missouri,"  St.  Louis  A  cad.  of  Sciences, 
1880.     Rau  :  "  Smith.  Contr.,"  vol.  XXII.,  fig.  236,  et  seq. 
'Rau  :  "Arch.  Coll.  of  the  U.  S.  Nat.  Museum."  Washington,  1876,  fig.  99. 


1/2  PKE-IIISTORIC  AMERICA. 

ed,  and  it  would  be  impossible  to  distinguish  those  of 
New  Jersey  from  those  of  Michigan,  or  those  of  Ohio  from 
those  of  Florida.  They  consist  of  pearls,  of  shells,  of  cylin- 
ders made  from  the  ribs  of  the  manatee,  the  pierced  teeth  of 
the  bear,  of  the  wild  cat,  wolf  and  shark,  the  bones  of  little 
birds,  the  claws  of  birds  of  prey,  and  rings  of  stone  or  bone.1 
Beneath  a  mound  near  St.  Clair  River,  Michigan,  a  collar  has 
been  found  made  of  bear  teeth,  alternating  with  beads  of 
copper  and  bird-bones.  All  this  recalls  the  ornaments  still 
affected  by  the  Indians  of  our  own  time. 

Beads  may  be  counted  by  thousands  ;  they  are  of  mother- 
of-pearl,  of  shell,  stone,  and  wood,  sometimes  covered  with 
a  thin  coating  of  metal.  Numerous  ornaments  of  wood 
covered  with  a  coating  of  copper  have  been  found,  chiefly 
near  Nashville  ;  and  under  a  stone  mound  in  Tennessee,  ear- 
plugs of  similar  workmanship.  Some  of  these  articles  are  of 
copper,  plated,  by  hammering,  with  native  silver,  gold,  or 
meteoric  iron. 

Mica,  with  its  brilliant  surface  played  an  important  part 
in  matters  of  ornament.  It  was  also  commonly  employed 
in  large  sheets  supposed  to  have  served  as  mirrors,  or  cut 
into  ovals,  spiral  or  diamond-shaped  points,  which  served  as 
ornaments.  At  Grave  Creek,  Virginia,  more  than  one 
hundred  sheets  of  mica  were  discovered,  pierced  with  holes 
for  hanging  them  up.  Under  a  mound  on  the  banks  of  the 
Little  Miami,  several  pieces  of  mica,  measuring  as  much  as 
a  foot  in  diameter,  are  mentioned  as  having  been  placed  on 
the  skeletons.3  Chiefs  and  important  personages  wore  shell 
ornaments.  These  were  generally  cut  out  of  the  flattest 
part  of  large  shells.  The  shells  most  often  used  were  Busy- 
con  pcrversum,  Strombus  gigas,  Fasciolaria  gigantea,  and 
Marginella  conoidalis.  These  species  are  still  found  off  the 
southeastern  coast  of  the  United  States  in  great  abundance. 
The  ornaments  were  worn  on  the  neck,  and  at  death  were 
placed  in  the  grave.  Two  such  ornaments  were  discovered 

'Rau  :  "  Smith.  Cont.,"  vol.  XXII.,  figs.  213  and  214. 

*  Dr.  S.  Scoville,  Cincinnati  Quarterly  Journal,  April,  1875. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  1 73 

in  Tennessee  on  one  of  which  (fig.  80)  four  birds'  heads  can 
be  made  out ;  the  edges  of  the  second  are  elegantly  carved. 
The  St.  Louis  Museum  owns  many  similar  shells ;  on  one 
of  them  is  engraved  a  huge  spider.  On  others  an  attempt 
has  been  made  to  represent  human  figures,  and  even  scenes 
from  life,  such  as  a  battle  in  which  the  conqueror,  sword  in 
hand,  has  his  foot  on  the  breast  of  his  adversary.  In  a  pre- 
historic grave  of  Mackinac  Island  between  Lakes  Michigan 


FIG.  80. — Shell  ornament  from  Tennessee. 

and  Huron,  Robertson  found  two  pendants  made  of  sea 
shell.  These  pendants  must  therefore  have  been  taken 
across  the  greater  part  of  North  America.  Shells  were  also 
used  to  make  necklaces,  pins,  and  probably  many  other 
things  (fig.  81).  A  very  extensive  intertribal  traffic  in  such 
and  other  articles  has  doubtless  existed  in  America  from 
remote  ages.  As  recently  it  has  been  found  that  articles 
from  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  may  reach  the  mouth  of  the 
Mackenzie,  on  the  Arctic  Sea,  in  about  three  years,  by  barter, 
via  Bering  Strait,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  articles  from  Mex- 
ico or  Florida  should  be  found  in  Minnesota  or  New  Eng- 
land. 


174 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


Among  the  ornaments  affected  by  the  Mound  Builders 
were  polished  stones,  often  brought  from  long  distances,  and 
pierced  with  one  or  more  holes  for  hanging  them  up  by. 
Squier  has  remarked  that  with  the  stones  from  the  mounds 
of  Mississippi,  the  holes  for  suspension  were  always  pierced 
at  a  distance  of  four  fifths,  of  an  inch  apart.  By  a  coincidence 
probably  accidental,  but  certainly  curious,  the  same  measure 
is  exactly  reproduced  on  some  stones  found  at  Swanton.1  Of 
these  stones,  some  are  of  considerable  weight,  and  sometimes 


FlG.  81. — Pin  made  of  shell  from  Ely  Mound,  Va. 


FIG.  82. — Sculptured  stone  found  at  Swanton,  Vermont ;    the  base  is  flat  and 
is  pierced  with  two  holes  for  suspension.     Length  3^  inches. 

exceed  two  pounds ;  some  represent  animals  (fig.  82)  chiefly 
birds,  almost  always  roughly  hewn.  A  fragment  of  white 
marble  is  mentioned  in  which  the  parts  the  artist  wished 
especially  to  accentuate  are  colored  red.  It  would  indeed 
be  difficult  to  enumerate  all  the  varieties  which  have 
rewarded  excavations. 

We  must  not  omit  to  mention  the  metallic  ornaments  of 
the  Mound  Builders.     At  Connett's  Mound  more  than  five 

1  G.   H.   Perkins  :    "  On  an  Ancient  Burial  Ground  in  Swanton,  Vermont," 
Am.  Assoc.,  Portland,  1873. 


POTTERY.    WEAPONS,    AND   ORNAMENTS.  175 

hundred  copper  beads  (fig.  83)  have  been  collected.  These 
beads  were  intended  to  make  bracelets  or  necklaces. 

At  Circular  Mound,  near  the  Detroit  River,  some  similar 
beads  were  threaded  on  a  string  made  of  bark.  They  had 
been  shaped  from  a  thin  sheet  of  copper,  first  cut  out  and 
then  rolled  without  any  trace  of  soldering.1  In  other  in- 
stances the  beads  were  of  oval  form,  and  their  manufacture 
must  have  presented  serious  difficulties. 

Besides  the  ornaments  just  mentioned  we  meet  with  celts. 
A  "  celt  "  is  an  implement  of  stone  or  bronze,  used  some- 
times as  a  weapon,  but  generally  for  industrial  purposes, 
performing  the  office  of  a  chisel  or  an  adze.  Celts  vary 
considerably  both  in  shape  and  size,  but  usually  have  the 


FIG.  83. — Copper  beads  from  Connett's  Mound,  Ohio  (natural  size). 

outline  of  a  plane-iron  such  as  carpenters  use,  though  of 
course  much  thicker  when  of  stone,  and  with  the  cutting 
edge  more  or  less  arched.  There  are  also  scrapers,  scissors, 
knives,  lance-  and  arrow-points  of  different  forms,  all  made 
by  hammering  pieces  of  native  copper.  To  the  early  and 
late  aborigines  of  America  the  malleable  properties  of  cop- 
per were  well  known.  At  Swanton  a  copper  hatchet  was 
found  originally  provided  with  a  wooden  handle,  of  which 
fragments  could  still  be  distinguished ;  in  Wisconsin  a 
lance-point  and  a  knife  that  might  *  be  compared  with 
our  modern  weapons  (fig.  84) ;  at  Joliet,  Illinois,  a  sharp 
blade,  and  at  Fort  Wayne  a  knife.  On  a  skeleton  discovered 
beneath  a  mound  at  Zollicoffer  Hill,  a  copper  ornament  of 

1  Andrews  :  "  Expl.  in  S.  E.  Ohio."     "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1877. 


1 76 


PRE-HIS  TOR  1C  A  ME  RICA . 


quite  peculiar  form  was  found.1  The  cross  surmounting  it 
led  people  to  suppose  it  to  be  of  European  origin;  but  Dr. 
Jones  mentions  the  same  subject 
as  an  ornament  on  some  engraved 
shells  and  copper  objects,  also 
found  in  Tennessee.'  A  skeleton 
taken  from  one  of  the  Chillicothe 
mounds  bore  a  cross  upon  its  breast, 
and  a  figure  with  a  cross  engraved 
upon  its  shoulder  was  discovered  be- 
neath a  mound  in  the  Cumberland 
valley.  The  cross  occurs  again  on 
one  of  the  bas-reliefs  of  Palenque, 
and  on  the  monuments  of  Cuzco,  in 
the  very  centre  of  the  worship  of  the 
sun.  When  Grijalva  landed  in  1518 
on  the  coast  of  Yucatan,  his  surprise 
was  great  to  meet  with  the  sign  of 
his  own  faith  in  the  temples  of  the 
natives.8  Similar  instances  occur  all 
over  the  continent  of  America  and 
are  mentioned,  though  it  is  impos- 
sible to  attach  any  importance  to 
them.  The  cross  is  of  great  antiquity 
in  all  countries.  It  is  found  on  the 
most  ancient  monuments  of  Egypt, 
where  it  symbolizes  eternal  life.  It 
is,  moreover,  one  of  the  simplest 
forms  of  ornament  and  as  such,  and 
as  suggested  by  many  flowers  and 
other  natural  objects,  we  should  ex- 
pect to  find  in  all  parts  of  the  world 
FIG.  84.— Copper  weapons  that  it  has  been  made  use  of  by 

found  in  Wisconsin. 

primitive  man. 

'Putnam:  "Arch.  Expl.  in  Tennessee."  "Rep.,  Peabody  Mus.,"  1878, 
vol.  II.,  p.  307. 

a  Hey  wood  :  "  Expl.  of  the  Aboriginal  Remains  of  Tennessee."  "Smith- 
sonian Contr.,"  1876. 

*  Herrera  :  "Hist.  Gen.  de   los   hechos  de  los   Castillanos   en   las   Islas  y 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND    ORNAMENTS. 


\TJ 


The  pottery  of  Missouri  and  the  discoveries  of  Putnam  in 
the  caves  of  Kentucky  have  already  revealed  the  nature  of 
the  clothing  worn  by  the  Mound  Builders,  and  mummies 
found  in  the  caves  of  the  western  states  enable  us  to  judge 
of  them  still  better.  The  bodies  were  wrapped  in  coarse 
cloth,  over  which  was  a  kind  of  net  with  wide  meshes, 
in  which  were  stuck  feathers  of  brilliant  colors,  the  whole  en- 
veloped in  a  third  covering  of  skin.  The  ancient  inhabitants 
of  America  manufactured  different  kinds 
of  tissues.  A  few  years  ago  the  excava- 
tion of  a  mound  near  the  Great  Miami 
River,  two  miles  north  of  Middletown, 
Ohio,  yielded  several  fragments  of  half- 
burnt  cloth  mixed  with  charcoal,  and  hu- 
man bones  also  injured  by  fire.1  This  cloth 
which  had  been  coarsely  woven  by  hand 
was  doubtless  used  to  wrap  the  body  in  be- 
fore cremation,  or,  at  least,  the  partial 
burning  which  preceded  interment.  It 
cannot  reasonably  be  attributed  to  the 
present  Indians,  as  the  mound  showed  no 
traces  of  disturbance. 

Other  instances  confirm  what  we  have 
just  stated.  In  Iowa  some  copper  axes 
have  been  recently  discovered  carefully 
wrapped  in  very  well  preserved  cloth,2  and 
in  January,  1876,  excavations  in  a  mound 
in  Illinois  '  brought  to  light  several  turtles 
in  beaten  copper  of  remarkable  workman- 
ship.  Most  of  these  turtles  measure 
not  more  than  2  1-8  inches  in  length,  fer  Hill,  Tenn. 
and  the  copper  has  been  reduced  by  beating  to  a  thick- 

Tierra  Firme  del  mar  Oceano."     Madrid,  1725-30,  Dec.  2d,  Book  III.,  chap. 
I.     The  first  edition  was  published  in  1605. 

'Foster:    "Description  of   samples  of   ancient  cloth   from  the    mounds  of 
Ohio."     "  Rep.,  Am.  Assoc.  ,"  Albany,  1851. 

*  Short  :   "  The  North  Americans  of  Antiquity,"  p.  37. 

*  Bulletin  of  the  Bu/alo  Society  of  Natural  Hi  stoiy,  March,  1877. 


FIG.  85.  —  Copper 


1/8  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

ness  of  1-64  of  an  inch.  These  jewels,  for  such  they 
must  be  called,  evidently  of  great  value,  were  enveloped  suc- 
cessively in  a  vegetable  tissue,  some  stuff  of  brown  color 
made  of  the  hair  either  of  the  rabbit  or  some  other  animal,1 
and  lastly  in  a  covering  made  out  of  the  intestines  of  some 
animal.  In  the  same  mound  were  found  teeth  of  a  deer 
perforated  for  suspension  and  covered  with  very  thin  plates 
of  copper.  These  teeth  were  wrapped  like  the  turtles  we 
have  just  described. 

The  Ohio  mounds,  which  have  afforded  results  so  fruitful 
for  science,  have  also  yielded  a  very  well-preserved  piece 
of  skin  about  eight  or  ten  inches  long,  ornamented  with  nu- 
merous oval  copper  beads.  This  was  a  fragment  of  a 
garment  which  had  belonged  to  a  Mound  Builder.* 

The  copper  which  the  Mound  Builders  used  so  frequently 
came  from  the  shores  of  Lake  Superior.8  The  works  of 
ancient  miners  are  scattered  over  a  region  150  miles  long 
and  from  four  to  seven  miles  wide,  now  called  the  Trap-zone. 
Keweenaw  Point  juts  out  like  a  buttress  into  the  lake  for  a 
distance  of  seventy  miles,  and  the  mineral  deposits  which 
abound  there  have  been  worked  in  remote  ages,  though  all 
traces  had  been  obliterated,  and  all  memory  of  the  old 
miners  lost,  until,  in  1848,  the  work  of  a  mining  company 
laid  them  bare.  The  depth  of  the  excavations,  which  were 
always  open  to  the  sky,  varied  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet, 
the  latter  forming  the  extreme  limit  to  which  these  inexperi- 
enced workmen  dared  to  penetrate,  and  the  copper  was 
found  in  masses  varying  from  a  few  ounces  to  thousands  of 
pounds.  In  one  mine,  which  had  been  choked  up  in  the 

1  Examination  with  the  microscope  has  not  succeeded  in  satisfactorily  de- 
termining the  nature  of  this  hair.  It  is  known,  however,  that  the  Nahuas  manu- 
factured a  tissue  as  fine  as  silk  out  of  rabbit's  hair. 

'School-house  Mound,  Ohio.  Andrews:  "Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  vol. 
II.,  p.  65. 

*  C.  Jackson  :  "  Geological  Report  to  the  U.  S.  Government,"  1849.  Fos- 
ter and  Whitney:  "  Report  on  the  Geology  of  the  Lake  Superior  Region,"  part 
I,  1850.  Ch.  Whittlesey  :  "Ancient  Mining  on  the  Shores  of  Lake  Superior"  ; 
Am.  Assoc.,  Montreal,  Canada,  1857.  Swineford :  "  Review  of  the  Mineral 
Resources  of  Lake  Superior,"  1876. 


PO  TTER  Y,    WE  A  PONS,    A  ND   ORNA  MEN  TS.  1 79 

course  of  years  with  earth  and  vegetable  refuse,  the  remains 
of  several  generations  of  trees,  was  found,  at  about  eighteen 
feet  from  the  surface,  a  block  of  metal  measuring  two  feet 
long  by  three  wide  and  two  thick,  and  weighing  nearly  six 
tons.  This  mass  had  been  placed  on  rollers  from  six  to 
eight  inches  in  diameter,  the  edges  of  which  still  bore  the 
marks  of  a  sharp  instrument.  The  miners  had  rolled  the 
mass  up  about  five  feet,  and  then  they  had  abandoned  an 
undertaking  beyond  their  strength  or  the  means  at  their  dis- 
posal. Their  mining  processes  were  very  simple ;  the  work- 
men lighted  great  fires  in  the  mine,  and  when  the  rock  had 
become  friable  they  broke  it  with  powerful  blows  of  a  stone 
hammer  or  mallet.  Several  of  the  mallets  used  have  been 
found,  the  heaviest  weighing  as  much  as  thirty-six  pounds  ; 
also  a  great  number  of  small  serpentine  or  porphyry  ham- 
mers. Knapp,  who  was  the  first  to  direct  these  excavations, 
states  that  he  took  out  from  these  mines  ten  cart-loads  of 
stone  implements  of  all  kinds.  In  an  unusually  deep  exca- 
vation, a  quite  primitive  ladder  was  found,  consisting  of  the 
trunk  of  a  young  tree,  with  the  branches  cut  at  unequal 
distances  to  serve  as  rungs.  In  other  places  shovels,  levers, 
and  dippers  of  cedar  wood  were  discovered,  preserved 
from  destruction  by  the  water  in  which  they  were  soaked. 
Everywhere  copper  implements  were  found  side  by  side  with 
stone,  mostly  bearing  marks  of  long  service.  One  mallet 
weighed  more  than  twenty  pounds.  Like  all  the  other  cop- 
per objects  it  had  been  made  by  hammering  unheated. 

Various  analyses  of  the  copper  of  Lake  Superior  have 
proved  its  identity  with  that  collected  from  the  mounds. 
Both  yield  the  same  proportion  of  silver,  and  we  know  that 
the  latter  metal  is  always  present  with  copper  in  varying 
quantities. 

The  deposits  of  Isle  Royal,  Lake  Superior,  were  even 
richer  than  those  of  Keweenaw  Point.1  They  extended  for  a 
distance  of  forty  miles,  and  the  ground  was  riddled  with 
ancient  excavations  dug  out  to  get  at  the  ore.  It  has  been 

1  H.  Gillman  :     "  Ancient  Works  of  Isle  Royal."     "  Smith.  Cont.,"  1873. 


180  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

estimated  that  the  vegetation  rising  from  the  old  mining 
works  of  the  Great  Lakes  represent  an  approximate  duration 
of  several  centuries.  But  we  have  already  referred  to  the 
uncertain  character  of  what  may  be  called  vegetable  evi- 
dence. 

Traces  of  native  mining  operations  have  been  found  in  sev- 
eral other  parts  of  North  America,  in  Arkansas,  Missouri,  and 
on  the  slopes  of  the  Ozark  Mountains,  for  instance.1  There 
were  also  copper  mines  in  Mexico,3  but  there  is  nothing  to 
show  when  they  were  worked.  Captain  Peck  noticed  near 
the  Ontonagon  River,  in  northern  Michigan,  at  a  depth  of 
twenty-five  feet,  some  sledges  and  other  tools  in  contact  with 
a  vein  of  copper.3  A  little  above  them  lay  the  fallen  trunk 
of  an  old  cedar ;  the  roots  of  a  fir  in  full  vigor  surrounded 
the  cedar.  This  fir  was  estimated  to  be  at  least  a  hundred 
years  old,  and  to  that  time  must  be  added  the  age  of  the 
cedar  it  had  replaced,  with  the  yet  longer  period  necessary 
to  the  filling  up  of  the  abandoned  cutting  by  the  slow  accu- 
mulations of  successive  winters,  which  supplied  the  trees 
with  the  vegetable  earth  necessary  to  their  growth. 

Copper  seems  to  have  been  the  only  metal  in  common 
use  amongst  the  Mound  Builders.  Few  well  authenticated 
discoveries  of  gold  are  known  ;  silver  was  rare,  and  so  far 
has  been  found  chiefly  under  some  mounds  of  Mound  City, 
in  very  thin  leaves  covering  shells  or  copper  ornaments,  and 
this  plating  is  so  well  done  that  the  work  of  the  artificer 
can  only  be  made  out  with  difficulty.  This  silver  must  have 
come  from  Lake  Superior,  where  it  is  found  associated  with 
native  copper  in  a  metallic  state. 

It  has  been  generally  supposed  that  iron  was  unknown,* 
and  in  numerous  excavations  made  at  many  different  points 
and  in  many  different  regions,  not  a  scrap  of  it  has  been 
found.  We  have  previously  mentioned  the  recent  and  au- 
thentic discovery  of  meteoric  iron  by  Putnam  and  Metz  in 

1  Schoolcraft  :   "  Archives  of  Aboriginal  Knowledge,"  vol.  I.,  p.  101. 
s  F.  von  Hellwald  :  "  Congres  des  Americanistes,"  Luxembourg,  1877. 

3  Lubbock  :   "  Prehistoric  Times,"  p.  289. 

4  Iron  ore  and  galena  occur,  but  no  iron  or  lead,  Bancroft,  vol.  IV.,  p.  778. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  l8l 

the  Little  Miami  mounds,  which  show  that  it  was  considered 
very  valuable,  since  copper  ornaments  were  plated  with  it 
as  others  were  with  gold  or  silver.  Previous  statements 
with  regard  to  the  discover)'  of  iron  in  the  mounds  are,  with- 
out exception,  unsatisfactory. 

The  Mound  Builders  are  supposed  to  have  been  quite  ig- 
norant of  any  process  of  fusing  metals,1  and  their  weapons, 
or  implements  of  copper,  were,  as  we  have  more  than  once 
remarked,  shaped  by  hammering.  A  recent  discovery, 
however,  is  claimed  to  modify  this  opinion  and  to  prove  that 
in  one  place  at  least  the  Mound  Builders  understood  the  art 
of  smelting  metals.  Some  recent  excavations  in  Wisconsin 
have  yielded  not  only  implements  of  copper,  but  the  very 
moulds  in  which  they  are  supposed  to  have  been  cast.  It  is 
desirable  that  other  facts  should  confirm  an  assertion  upset- 
ting the  hitherto  generally  received  opinion."  It  has  been 
held  by  some  and  with  much  probability,  that  the 
moulds  were  used  in  the  process  of  shaping  cold  copper,  a 
piece  of  approximately  similar  form  having  been  put  into 
the  mould  and  hammered  until  it  took  the  shape  of  the 
cavity.  The  experiment  was  successfully  tried  by  Dr.  Hoy 
with  one  of  the  stone  moulds. 

Traces  of  cultivation  attributed  to  the  Mound  Builders  are 
numerous  in  the  western  states,  especially  in  Michigan  and 
Indiana.*  These  are  parallel  embankments,  which  often 
cover  a  considerable  area,  several  acres  for  instance,  to  which 
have  been  given  the  significant  name  of  Garden-beds.  We 
meet  with  similar  embankments  in  Missouri  and  in  all  the 

1  There  is  no  evidence  that  metal  was  ever  obtained  from  ore  by  smelting. 
The  Mound  Builders  were  ignorant  of  the  arts  of  casting,  welding,  and  alloy- 
ing. Bancroft,  vol.  IV.,  p.  778. 

*  The  above  was  written  when  I  heard  of  a  letter  from  Putnam,  of  Nov.  17, 
1 88 r,  called  "  Were  ancient  implements  hammered  or  moulded  into  shape?" 
The  learned  professor  concludes  with  me  that  there  is  so  far  no  serious  proof  of  the 
use  of  moulding.  "  Besides  beating,"  adds  Putnam,  "  these  men  employed  one 
other  process  ;  the  metal  was  rolled  between  two  flat  stones,  by  which  means 
the  required  form  was  obtained." 

1  Schoolcraft  :  "  Ancient  Garden-Beds  in  Grand  River  Valley  "  (Michigan), 
vol.  I.,  p.  50,  and  pi.  VI.  Conant,  p.  65. 


1 82  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

districts  west  of  the  Mississippi ;  they  extend  into  the  valleys 
of  the  Ozark  Mountains,  from  Pulaski  county  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  on  the  south,  to  the  banks  of  the  Colorado  and  to 
Texas  on  the  west,  and  to  Iowa  on  the  north.  Their 
diameter  varies  from  ten  to  sixty  feet,  and  their  height  from 
two  to  three  feet.  Numerous  and  detailed  excavations  have 
yielded  no  relic,  no  bone,  no  fragment  of  pottery,  no  heap  of 
cinders  or  of  coal  that  could  witness  to  the  residence 
or  the  burial  of  man.  They  cannot  therefore  be  compared 
either  with  the  kitchen  middens  or  the  sepulchral  mounds. 

Professor  Forshey  attests  their  presence  in  Louisiana,  where 
they  are  of  considerably  larger  dimensions,  their  diameter 
varying  from  thirty  to  one  hundred  and  forty  feet.  It  should 
be  added  that  the  diameter  of  one  hundred  and  forty  feet  is 
an  isolated  case.  Their  greatest  height  is  five  feet,  which 
diminishes  to  a  few  inches  in  the  vast  marshes  stretching  away 
from  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  At  certain  points  these 
embankments  touch  each  other,  and  between  Galveston  and 
Houston,  between  the  Red  River  and  Wichita,  they  can  be 
counted  by  thousands.  According  to  Forshey,  who  de- 
scribed them  to  the  New  Orleans  Academy  of  Sciences, 
these  embankments  cannot  have  served  as  the  founda- 
tions of  the  homes  of  men.  He  remarked  that  none  of  the 
known  burrowing  animals  execute  such  works,  whilst  hurri- 
canes could  not  have  accumulated  materials  with  such  regu- 
larity. He  added  that  in  his  opinion  it  was  impossible  to 
say  any  thing  definite  with  regard  to  their  origin,  which 
seemed  to  him  inexplicable.  Other  archaeologists  are  more 
positive  ;  they  consider  that  these  embankments  could  have 
been  used  for  nothing  but  cultivation,  and  that  they  were  in- 
tended to  counteract  the  humidity  of  the  soil,  still  the 
greatest  obstacle  with  which  the  tillers  of  the  rich  plains  of 
the  lower  Mississippi  valley  have  to  contend. 

According  to  certain  authorities  the  Mound  Builders  cul- 
tivated maize,  frijoles  or  black  kidney  beans,  introduced  by 
the  Spaniards  into  Europe,  and  even  th.e  vine.  A  recent  ex- 
plorer, Amasa  Potter,  in  describing  the  excavations  of  a 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  183 

mound  in  Utah,  tells  of  having  found  a  handful  of  corn, 
a  few  grains  of  which  carefully  collected  and  planted  yielded 
the  following  year  an  ear  of  exceptional  length,  containing  a 
number  of  grains  of  a  shape  quite  distinct  from  that  of 
any  cereal  of  to-day ;  but  the  whole  account  of  this  dis- 
covery is  so  extraordinary  that  it  is  impossible  to  accept  it. 

To  sum  up  :  the  vast  region  between  the  Mississippi  on 
the  west  and  the  Alleghanies  on  the  east  and  between 
the  Ohio  on  the  north  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  south, 
was  occupied  for  centuries,  the  exact  number  of  which  it 
is  impossible  to  estimate  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge, 
by  man.  Judging  from  the  number  of  structures  left  to  bear 
witness,  this  population  was  numerous ;  tolerably  homo- 
geneous, for  everywhere  we  recognize  similar  funeral  rites, 
and  much  the  same  arts  and  industries ;  sedentary,  for 
nomads  would  not  have  erected  such  temples  or  constructed 
such  intrenchments  ;  pastoral  and  agricultural,  for  the  chase 
could  not  have  supplied  all  their  needs  ;  subject  to  chiefs,  for 
a  despotic  authority  must  have  been  indispensable  to  the 
erection  of  the  works  left  behind  them  ;  and  lastly  they  must 
have  been  traders,  for  beneath  the  same  mounds  we  find  the 
copper  of  Lake  Superior,  the  mica  of  the  Alleghanies,  the 
obsidian  of  Mexico,  and  the  pearls  and  shells  of  the  Gulf.  All 
testify  to  the  fact  that  the  men,  whose  traces  we  are  seeking, 
had  long  since  risen  from  the  barbarism  of  savagery,  and  that 
they  had  attained  to  a  state  of  comparative  culture.  It 
is  certain  that,  as  with  all  the  savage  rac"es  whose  evolution 
history  enables  us  to  follow,  this  culture  could  only  have 
been  acquired  slowly  and  by  degrees. 

What  then,  we  must  now  ask,  were  the  men,  whose  works 
so  justly  excite  our  astonishment  ?  Did  the  Mound  Builders 
disappear  ?  Were  they  aboriginal,  or  were  their  architecture, 
their  industrial  art,  and  their  agriculture  of  foreign  origin? 
If  they  migrated  from  neighboring  regions,  or  from  distant 
continents,  what  were  those  regions  and  what  those  con- 
tinents? By  what  route  did  they  travel,  and  if  they  disap- 
peared how  was  it  that  all  recollection  of  their  disappearance 


184  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

was  effaced  from  the  memory  of  their  conquerors  or  their 
successors?  It  is  impossible  to. disguise  either  the  bearing 
of  these  questions  on  the  development  of  the  American 
races  ;  or  the  fact  that  at  present  we  can  but  partially  solve 
them.  The  conditions  of  the  problem  and  the  opinions 
which  have  been  successively  enounced  may  be  briefly 
stated. 

Those  who  have  made  this  subject  their  special  study  have 
been  divided  into  two  parties,  and  religious  prejudice  has 
even  been  invoked  to  aggravate  the  difficulties  already  in 
themselves  so  great.  To  the  most  recent  and  cautious  investi- 
gators the  Indians  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  represent 
in  a  general  way  the  so  called  Mound  Builders,  while  others, 
on  the  contrary,  assert  that  the  builders  of  the  great  mounds 
have  completely  disappeared,  and  these  persons  absolutely 
refuse  to  admit  the  possibility  of  the  native  races  of  North 
America  being  their  descendants.  We  must  examine  in 
turn  the  arguments  and  objections  which  are  not  wanting  for 
or  against  any  of  the  theories  put  forth. 

One  thing  is  certain  :  The  analogy  between  the  mounds 
is  such  that  they  cannot  but  be  the  work  of  a  people  in 
about  the  same  stage  of  culture.  "  They  are  all  built  by  one 
people,"  observes  Conant,  on  p.  39  of  his  "  Footprints  of 
Vanished  Races,"  and  it  is  not  less  certain  that  centuries 
may  have  been  required  for  their  erection.  The  men  who 
worked  the  mines  of  Lake  Superior,  who  erected  such  mounds 
as  those  of  Newark,'  Portsmouth,  Cincinnati,  Chillicothe,  and 
Circleville,  and  such  fortifications  as  those  of  Ohio,  must  long 
have  dwelt  in  these  regions,  though  it  is  impossible  to  fix  the 
limits  of  their  occupation.  The  question  of  the  time  of  their 
residence  is  so  intimately  connected  with  that  of  their  origin, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  separate  them. 

One  preliminary  remark  must  be  made :  in  the  caves  and 
beneath  the  tumuli  of  Europe  have  been  found  numerous 
well-preserved  human  bones,  often  dating  from  the  most  re- 
mote antiquity,  while  this  is  less  commonly  the  case  in 
America.  These  excavations  have  often  yielded,  as  the  last 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  185 

vestiges  of  the  human  body,  but  a  few  little  heaps  of  white 
dust ;  though  hundreds  of  skeletons  have  been  taken  out,  but 
a  small  proportion  of  them  have  been  treated  with  the  care 
necessary  to  their  preservation. 

It  has  also  been  noticed  that  mounds  are  rarely  met  with 
in  the  lower  levels  *  of  the  districts  watered  by  the  Ohio  or 
its  tributaries.  These  structures  nearly  all  rise  from  terraces 
formed  by  ancient  alluvial  deposits,  and  some  have  retained 
to  this  day  traces  of  great  inundations  which  altered  the 
valleys.  It  is  likely  that  their  builders  chose  their  sites  so 
as  to  avoid  the  great  floods,  the  disastrous  effects  of  which 
they  must  have  annually  experienced  at  the  outset.  Recent 
discoveries  enable  us  to  add  that  some  of  the  mounds  rise 
from  the  most  recent  alluvial  deposits.  This  fact  would 
prove  that  the  erection  of  mounds  went  on  for  centuries. 

The  giants  of  the  forest  have  covered  many  of  the  arti- 
ficial earthworks,  and  generations  of  tree  in  their  turn  suc- 
ceeded the  residence  of  man.  Such  changes  surely  needed 
a  long  period  of  time.  "  The  process  by  which  nature  re- 
stores the  forest  to  its  original  state,  after  being  once 
cleared,  is  extremely  slow,"  says  General  Harrison2  in  a 
speech  already  quoted.  "  The  rich  lands  of  the  West  are, 
indeed,  soon  covered  again,  but  the  character  of  the  growth 
is  entirely  different,  and  continues  so  for  a  long  period.  In 
several  places  upon  the  Ohio,  and  upon  the  farm  which  I 
occupy,  clearings  were  made  in  the  first  settlement  of  the 
country,  and  consequently  abandoned  and  suffered  to  grow 
up.  Some  of  these  new  forests  are  now  sure  of  fifty  years' 
growth,  but  they  have  made  so  little  progress  toward  attain- 
ing the  appearance  of  the  immediately  contiguous  forest  as 
to  induce  any  man  of  reflection  to  determine  that  at  least 
ten  times  fifty  years  must  elapse  before  their  complete 

1  The  difference  of  level  between  the  high  and  low  water  is  thirty-five  feet  for 
the  Upper  Mississippi,  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  for  the  Missouri,  and  forty-two 
for  the  Ohio. 

*  "  Trans.  Hist.  Soc.  of  Ohio,"  vol.  I.,  p.  263.  See  also  "Arch.  Americana," 
vol.  I.,  p.  306  ;  and  Squier  and  Davis'  "  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley,"  1848,  p.  306. 


1 86  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

assimilation  can  be  effected.  We  find  in  the  ancient  works 
all  that  variety  of  trees  which  give  such  unrivalled  beauty 
to  our  forests,  in  natural  proportions.  The  first  growth  of 
the  same  kind  of  land,  once  cleared  and  then  abandoned  to 
nature,  on  the  contrary,  is  nearly  homogeneous,  often  stinted 
to  one  or  two,  at  most  three,  kinds  of  timber.  If  the  ground 
has  been  cultivated,  the  yellow  locust  will  thickly  spring 
up ;  if  not  cultivated,  the  black  and  white  walnut  will  be  the 
prevailing  growth.  *  *  *  Of  what  immense  ages,  then, 
must  be  the  works  so  often  referred  to,  covered  as  they  are 
by  at  least  the  second  growth  after  the  primitive  forest 
state  was  regained  ?  " 

Barrandt J  describes  a  regular  town,  a  Mound  City  he 
calls  it,  on  the  Yellowstone  River,  which  town  had  perfectly 
straight  avenues  and  mounds  at  equal  distances.  Another 
town  rather  like  this,  on  the  Moreau  River,  contains  nearly 
two  hundred  mounds,  and  a  third  rises  on  the  banks  of  the 
Great  Cheyenne,  Nebraska.  In  Missouri  and  Arkansas  we 
also  see  a  considerable  number  of  mounds  of  elliptical  form, 
measuring  from  five  to  seven  yards  long,  and  rising  from 
about  one  foot  to  one  and  a  half  feet  above  the  ground. 
All  are  symmetrically  arranged,  with  passages  crossing  each 
other  at  right  angles,  as  do  our  streets.2  Excavations  have 
yielded  nothing  but  charcoal  or  fragments  of  coarse  pottery, 
from  which  no  useful  inferences  could  be  drawn.  In  the 
neighborhood  numerous  jasper  and  agate  arrow-points  have 
been  picked  up,  and  syenite  and  porphyry  axes.  * 

It  has  been  claimed  by  those  who  would  see  in  the  build- 
ers of  the  mounds  a  unique,  civilized,  and  vanished  race, 
that  the  symmetry  above  described  is  foreign  to  the  charac- 
ter of  the  existing  Indians,  that  the  Indian  races  did  not 
build  mounds,  that  they  did  not  throw  up  embankments, 
that  their  customs  and  industries  have  never  presented  so 
striking  a  similarity  as  the  remains  of  the  mounds  seem  to 

1  "  Smithsonian  Report,"  1870. 

*  J.  Dille  :    "Smithsonian  Report,"  1866. 

8  "  Narrative  of  a  Journey  across  the  Cordillera  of  the  Andes."  London,  1825. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  187 

indicate  for  their  builders,  that  the  Indians  could  not  or 
would  not  dig  canals,  hammer  copper  into  utensils,  or  make 
such  pottery  as  that  found  in  the  mounds.  It  is  also 
said  that  the  Indians  have  no  traditions  in  regard  to  the 
mounds,  or  ascribe  them  to  a  foreign  race  or  to  some  mythi- 
cal people,  and  have  no  reverence  for  them  such  as  would  be 
expected  if  the  works  were  the  tombs  of  their  ancestors. 

Of  these  arguments  it  may  be  said  that  there  is  hardly 
one  of  them  which  has  not  already  been  refuted  by  scientific 
researches  of  recent  days,  and  most  of  them  would  never 
have  been  offered  if  the  persons  who  advanced  them  had 
had  our  present  knowledge  of  the  American  races,  the 
mounds,  and  the  methods  of  scientific  archaeology.  This  is 
no  reproach  to  the  early  investigators.  Archaeology  as  a 
science  is  young,  and  yet  those  who  depend  upon  many  of 
the  early  writers  for  their  general  principles  are  in  the  posi- 
tion of  the  blind  led  by  the  blind. 

It  should,  however,  be  distinctly  understood  that  the 
reference  to  "  Indians  "  in  connection  with  the  mounds,  is  a 
strictly  general  term.  The  richest,  most  cultured,  and  most 
sedentary  of  the  Indian  tribes  existing  when  the  white  race 
poured  into  America  like  a  resistless  flood,  have  been  de- 
stroyed ;  of  many  tribes  none  remain.  Of  others  only  a 
most  feeble  remnant  exists  or  lately  existed  in  a  region  to 
which  they  have  been  exiled  from  the  lands  of  their  fathers. 
Those  who  constitute  the  greater  portion  of  our  Indian 
population  to-day  are  those  who  were  nomads,  wanderers, 
the  Bedouins  of  America,  the  idle  wanderers  who  were  not 
tied  to  the  soil  by  their  progress  in  culture,  and  who  proba- 
bly never  troubled  themselves  about  mounds  as  long  as  they 
could  shift  their  wigwams  from  one  good  hunting  ground  to 
another.  It  is  of  these  that  one  thinks  as  Indians  when  the 
contrast  between  Mound  Builder  and  Indian  is  mooted. 
Again,  even  among  those  who  were  not  of  the  nomadic 
category  there  is  no  doubt  that  their  facility  in  many  ab- 
original arts  wilted  before  the  sun  of  civilization,  while  the 
methods  and  tools  of  the  white  man,  like  foreign  weeds, 


1 88  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

sprang  up  in  the  vacant  place.  Why  spend  hours  of  work 
making  fragile,  if  artistic,  pots  when  an  otter  skin  would 
purchase  three  good  kettles  outlasting  a  wilderness  of  pots  ? 
Why  wearily  weave  the  macerated  fibres  of  wild  herbage  to 
a  coarse,  unsightly  fabric  when  a  basket  of  wild  berries 
would  sell  to  the  white  man  for  a  fathom  of  bright  calico? 
The  Indian,  whatever  romance  may  be  reflected  upon  him 
by  the  novelist  in  trying  to  hold  the  mirror  up  to  nature,  is, 
in  business  matters,  as  he  understands  them,  severely  practi- 
cal. The  white  man's  tools,  fabrics,  weapons,  kettles  are 
the  better  ones,  and  the  Indian  adopts  them.  After  three 
centuries  of  this  sort  of  thing  why  should  the  disappearance 
of  many  historically  recorded  aboriginal  methods  astonish  us. 

It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  America  holds  many 
peoples  of  different  culture  and  habits.  We  know  that  most 
of  them  are  ultimately  related  though  put  in  various  linguis- 
tic families.  Were  their  heaps  of  refuse  and  the  relics  of 
their  villages  their  only  record,  who  would  claim  kindred 
between  the  Pueblos  of  the  South  and  the  fishing  Indians  of 
Canada  ?  the  Northern  Tinneh  and  the  Apache,  or  many 
other  contemporaries  ?  These  reservations  made,  the  prob- 
lem of  the  mounds  becomes  less  misty. 

Although  it  is  true  that  we  meet  with  no  structures  amongst 
the  Indians  of  the  extreme  north  which  at  all  recall  those  of 
the  Mound  Builders,  and  although  the  laziness  of  the  ab- 
origines of  the  present  time  is  so  indomitable  that  they  have 
often  not  even  dreamed  of  turning  the  mounds  to  account  for 
the  burial  of  their  own  dead,  facts  of  a  different  kind  may  be 
quoted  with  regard  to  other  regions.  The  Kickapoos  living 
in  southern  Illinois,  and  the  Shawnees,  who  dwelt  near 
Nashville,  buried  their  dead,  until  quite  recent  times,  in 
stone  graves.  This  fact,  we  must  add,  has  been  called  in 
question,  especially  by  Carr  in  his  "  Observations  on  the 
Crania  from  the  Stone  Graves  of  Tennessee,"  '  and,  if  it  be 
true,  there  is  nothing  to  prove  that  the  Indians  did  not  use 
sepulchral  chambers  dating  from  before  their  arrival  in  the 
locality. 

1  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  II.,  pp.  361,  etq. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  189 

The  testimony  of  the  Spanish  historians  is  more  impor- 
tant. Garcilasso  de  la  Vega '  tells  of  the  Indian  mode  of 
founding  a  town  at  the  time  of  the  conquest.  According  to 
him  the  Indians  collected  large  quantities  of  earth  with  which 
they  formed  a  platform  many  feet  in  height,  large  enough 
to  hold  from  ten  to  twelve  houses,  or  if  necessary  fifteen  to 
twenty.  There  dwelt  the  chief,  his  family  and  his  chief 
attendants.  At  the  foot  of  the  mound  a  square  was  marked 
out,  of  the  size  the  town  was  to  be ;  the  principal  chiefs  took 
up  their  residences  in  it,  and  the  common  people  gathered 
about  them.  Further  on,  Garcilasso  *  described  the  town  of 
Guachoul6  near  the  source  of  the  Coosa,  not  far  from  the 
country  of  the  Achalaques,  part  of  the  Cherokee  tribe,  in 
which  the  house  of  the  chief  was  erected  on  an  eminence 
terminating  in  a  platform,  on  which  six  men  could  stand  up- 
right. 

The  confirmatory  testimony  of  early  explorers  shows  that 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  as  well  as  the  districts  now 
forming  the  states  of  Ohio,  Florida,  and  Georgia,  was  inhab- 
ited by  warlike  nations,  who  tilled  the  ground,  lived  in  forti- 
fied towns,  erected  their  temples  on  eminences,  often  arti- 
ficial, and  worshipped  the  sun.  These  were  the  men  who 
repulsed  Narvaez  when  he  endeavored  to  conquer  Florida  in 
1528.  It  is  but  fair  to  remark  that  Narvaez'  army  consisted 
of  but  400  foot  soldiers  and  twenty  cavalry,  though  provided 
with  civilized  weapons.  It  was  against  them  that  Hernan- 
dez de  Soto  fought  for  four  years,  giving  them  battle  with 
great  slaughter  in  Florida,  Georgia,  Tennessee,  Mississippi, 
Alabama,  and  Arkansas.  Everywhere  he  found  a  numerous 
population.  The  towns  were  surrounded  with  walls  of  earth, 
and  towers  strengthened  the  broad  trenches  which  completed 
the  defences.  At  Pascha,  west  of  the  Mississippi,  for 
instance,  the  Spaniards  found  a  fortified  town  surrounded 

1  "  Hist,  de  la  Conquete  de  la  Floride,  ou  Relation  de  ce  qui  s'  est  passe 
au  voyage  de  Ferdinand  de  Soto  pour  la  Conquete  de  ce  pays."  La  Haye,  1735, 
vol.  I.,  p.  136. 

a  Vol  I.,  p.  294.  See  also  A.  J.  Pickett,  "  History  of  Alabama,"  Charleston, 
1857,  vol.  I.,  p.  8. 


190  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

by  a  trench  sufficiently  wide  for  two  canoes  to  float  in  it 
abreast.  This  trench  was  nine  miles  long  and  communicated 
with  the  Mississippi. 

Squier  in  his  turn  tells  of  finding  among  the  Creeks. 
Natchez,  and  other  tribes  of  the  south,  traces  of  structures 
which,  if  they  do  not  exactly  resemble  the  regular  enclos- 
ures of  the  west,  seem  at  least  to  have  some  analogy  with 
them,  and  the  description  we  borrow  from  him  of  the  Chunk 
Yards J  is  certainly  a  fresh  proof  in  favor  of  the  opinion  he 
advances. 

"  The  Chunk  Yards*  are  rectangular  areas,  generally  occu- 
pying the  centre  of  the  town,  enclosed  and  having  an 
entrance  at  each  end.  The  public  square  and  rotunda,  or 
great  winter  council-house,  stand  at  the  two  opposite  corners 
of  them.  They  are  generally  very  extensive,  especially  in 
older  towns.  Some  of  them  are  600  to  900  feet  in  length 
and  of  proportionate  breadth.  The  area  is  levelled,  and  sunk 
two,  or  sometimes  three  feet  below  the  banks  or  terraces 
surrounding  them,  which  are  occasionally  two  in  number, 
one  behind  and  above  the  other,  and  composed  of  earth 
taken  from  the  area  at  the  time  of  its  formation.  These 
banks  or  terraces  served  the  purpose  of  seats  for  spectators. 
In  the  centre  of  the  yard  or  area  there  is  a  low  circular 
mound  or  eminence,  in  the  middle  of  which  stands  the 
'  Chunk  Pole,'  which  is  a  high  obelisk  or  four-square  pillar, 
tapering  upward  to  an  obtuse  point.  This  is  of  wood,  the 

1  "  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  p.  121. 

8  Their  name  is  derived  from  an  Indian  game.  Catlin  describes  it  among 
the  Mandans  and  gives  it  the  name  of  Tchungkee  ("Illustrations  of  the 
Manners,  Customs,  and  Conditions  of  the  North  American  Indians,"  London, 
1866,  vol  I.,  p.  132).  Adair  had  already  described  the  Chung  kee  among  the 
Cherokees  ("  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Indians,"  London,  1/75,  p.  401).  Jones  met 
with  the  same  game  among  the  Indians  of  the  South  ("Antiquities  of  the 
Southern  Indians"),  and  Bartram  among  those  of  Carolina.  Carr  gives  an 
illustration  of  a  carefully  polished  sandstone  of  elliptical  form  measuring  about 
four  inches  at  its  widest  part  and  nearly  two  and  three  fourths  thick.  This 
stone  was  found  under  Ely  Mound,  Virginia,  and  similar  ones  have  been  met 
with  in  various  places.  They  are  supposed  to  have  been  used  in  the  favorite 
game  of  the  Indians. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,  AND   ORNAMENTS.  IQI 

heart  or  inward  resinous  part  of  a  sound  pine-tree,  which  is 
very  durable.  It  is  generally  from  thirty  to  forty  feet  in 
length,  and  to  the  top  is  fastened  some  object  which  serves 
as  a  mark  to  shoot  at,  with  arrows  or  the  rifle,  at  certain 
appointed  times.  Near  each  corner  of  one  end  of  the  yard 
stands  erect  a  smaller  pole  or  pillar,  about  twelve  feet  high, 
called  the  '  Slave  Post,'  for  the  reason  that  to  them  are 
bound  the  captives  condemned  to  be  burned.  These  posts 
are  usually  decorated  with  the  scalps  of  slain  enemies,  sus- 
pended by  strings  from  the  top.  They  are  often  crowned 
with  the  white  dry  skull  of  an  enemy."  *****  Fur- 
ther on  the  same  author  describes  "  a  circular  eminence,  at 
one  end  of  the  yard,  commonly  nine  or  ten  feet  higher  than 
the  ground  round  about.  Upon  this  mound  stands  the 
great  rotunda,  hot-house,  or  winter  council-house,  of  the 
present  Creeks.  It  was  probably  designed  and  used  by  the 
ancients  who  constructed  it  for  the  same  purpose.  *  *  * 
A  square  terrace  or  eminence,  about  the  same  height  with 
the  circular  one  just  described,  occupies  a  position  at  the 
other  end  of  the  yard.  Upon  this  stands  the  Public  Square."  ' 
Recent  discoveries  confirm  this  account."  Under  a  coni- 
cal mound  measuring  19  feet  high  by  300  feet  in  circum- 
ference at  the  base,  in  Lee  county,  Virginia,  were  found  a 
number  of  posts  of  cedar  wood,  arranged  at  regular  intervals 
so  as  to  form  a  circle,  with  a  much  higher  one  in  the  centre 
doubtless  intended  to  hold  up  the  roof  or  covering.  This 
was  the  council-chamber,  the  assembly-room,  of  the  tribe, 
greatly  resembling  that  of  which  Bartram,  quoted  above, 
writing  in  the  last  century,  gives  a  description.  "  The 
council  or  town  house,"  he  says,  speaking  of  that  of  the 
Cherokees,  "  is  a  large  rotunda,  capable  of  accommodating 

1  These  extracts,  which  are  taken  from  Squier  and  Davis'  "Ancient  Monu- 
ments of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  pp.  121-123,  are  in  reality  quotations  by  these 
authors,  taken  with  others  from  a  MS.  by  W.  Bartram,  author  of  "  Travels  in 
North  and  South  Carolina."  "The  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley"  will  be  found  in  vol.  I.  of  the  "  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Know- 
ledge," published  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  at  Washington,  in  1848. 

*  "  Report  of  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  II.  p.  75,  etc. 


1 92  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

several  hundred  people  ;  it  stands  on  the  top  of  an  ancient 
artificial  mount  of  about  twenty  feet  perpendicular,  and  the 
rotunda  on  the  top  of  it  being  about  thirty  feet  more  gives 
the  whole  fabric  an  elevation  of  about  fifty  feet  from  the 
common  surface  of  the  ground  ;  but  it  may  be  proper  to  ob- 
serve that  this  mount,  on  which  the  rotunda  stands,  is  of  a 
much  more  ancient  date  than  the  building,  and  perhaps  was 
raised  for  another  purpose.  The  Cherokees  themselves  are  as 
ignorant  as  we  are  as  to  by  what  people  or  for  what  purpose 
these  artificial  hills  were  raised  ;  they  have  various  stories 
concerning  them." 

The  Indians  of  the  South  then  not  only  used  the  ancient 
mounds  for  the  houses  of  their  chiefs,  or  for  their  council- 
chambers,  but  they  also  erected  similar  mounds  in  their  own 
chunk  yards.  These  facts  greatly  modified  Squier's  first 
impressions,  and  led  him,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  to  a  conclu- 
sion he  little  expected  when  he  began  his  researches.  In  his 
last  studies  he  decided  that  the  earthworks  in  the  western 
portion  of  the  state  of  New  York  were  erected  by  the 
Iroquois,  and  that  their  erection  only  preceded  their  discov- 
ery by  a  short  time.  He  adds,  it  is  true,  that  in  the  i6th 
century  there  was  not  a  single  Indian  tribe  between  the  At- 
lantic and  the  Pacific,  except  the  half-civilized  people  of  the 
South,  who  had  sufficient  means  of  subsistence  to  be  able 
to  give  up  time  to  unproductive  labor ;  nor  was  there  one 
tribe  in  such  a  social  condition  as  would  admit  of  the  com- 
pulsory erection  by  the  people  of  the  structures  under  no- 
tice. Subsequent  researches  have  removed  many  of  the 
supposed  difficulties,  and  are  well  summarized  by  Lucien 
Carr  in  the  paper  from  which  we  have  already  quoted. 

Southall  dwells  on  the  facts  which  seem  to  him  to  prove, 
not  only  an  Indian  origin  for  the  mounds,  but  also  their  re- 
cent construction.1  His  work  describes  the  Iroquois  gov- 
ernment which  included  five  nations.  These  were  the 
Mohawks,  also  called  in  some  French  narratives  the  Agniers, 
theOneidas,  the  Onondagas,  theCayugas,  and  the  Senecas,  or 

1  "  Recent  Origin  of  Man,"  ch.  xxxvi.,  p.  530  et  seq. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  193 

Tsonontouas.  According  to  the  Jesuit  fathers  these  nations 
numbered  in  1665,  2340  warriors  or  altogether  11,700  souls, 
according  to  the  generally  accepted  method  of  estimating 
such  populations. 

They  devoted  themselves  to  agriculture,  and  were  able 
for  nearly  two  centuries  to  maintain  their  independence 
against  the  Dutch  and  French.  Their  territory  stretched 
from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Tennessee  and  Ohio ;  they  were 
not  ignorant  of  navigation,  and  early  travellers  report  having 
seen  their  canoes  as  far  southeast  as  Chesapeake  Bay.  Since 
then  they  have  given  up  their  nomad  habits  and  we  have 
some  very  exact  descriptions  of  their  villages  and  dwellings.1 

It  was  the  same  in  many  other  parts  of  the  country. 
Strachey,  travelling  in  Virginia  at  the  beginning  of  the 
1 7th  century,2  relates  that  he  found  the  Indians  liv- 
ing in  houses  made  of  wood,  cultivating  maize  and  tobacco, 
and  harvesting  peas,  kidney-beans,  and  fruit.  The  Mandans, 
dwelling  on  the  upper  Missouri,  not  far  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Yellowstone  River,  dug  out  earth  for  a  depth  of  about 
two  feet,  and  built  their  huts  in  the  hollows  thus  obtained. 
These  huts,  which  were  of  circular  form,  made  of  solid  ma- 
terials and  roofed  in  with  turf,  were  from  about  thirty  to 
forty  feet  in  diameter.  Several  families  lived  together;  the 
beds,  which  were  ranged  round  the  circular  walls,  had  cur- 
tains of  dressed  deer-skin.  The  Iroquois,  Natchez,  Dela- 
wares,  and  Indians  of  Florida  and  Louisiana  made  vases,  the 
ornamentation  and  delicacy  of  which  were  not  in  any  way 
inferior  to  the  pottery  of  the  Mound  Builders,  and  the  curi- 
ous pipes,  of  which  we  have  spoken,  are  met  with  among  the 
Indians  of  the  present  day. 

Lastly,  two  centuries  ago,  when  French  missionaries  first 
visited  the  districts  bordering  on  Lake  Superior,  the  Chip- 
pewas  used  copper  weapons  and  tools.  These  facts,  with 
many  others  which  might  be  quoted,  would  appear  to  justify 

1  See  especially  the  account  by  Greenhalgh  who  visited  several  Seneca  villages 
in  1677,  and  Morgan's  "  League  of  the  Iroquois." 
*  "  Historic  of  Travaile  into  Virginia  Britannia  "  (written  in  1618). 


194  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

a  belief  that  the  Indians  once  possessed  a  civilization  supe- 
rior to  the  condition  to  which  their  descendants  have  been 
reduced  by  defeat,  invasion,  indulgence  in  too  much  alcohol, 
and  other  causes. 

We  have  given  a  summary  of  the  different  opinions  held, 
and  have  stated  the  conclusions  to  which  they  lead  most 
modern  anthropologists.  Some  discussion  of  the  physical 
characters  of  these  races  may  be  useful,  The  Indians  of 
America  have  been  held  to  form  a  distinct  variety  of  the 
human  race.  Their  skin  is  swarthy,  varying  from  the  pale 
olive  to  a  warm  brown,  often  with  a  bright  color  on  the 
cheeks.  The  stories  of  their  copper-colored  complexion  are, 
at  least  in  North  America,  due  to  the  ridiculous  miscon- 
ception of  the  early  voyagers  who  took  no  account  of  the 
reddish  paint  with  which  they  were  smeared.  Like  the 
whites,  their  complexion  is  darkened  or  burned  by  the  sun, 
sometimes  to  a  considerable  degree,  but  nobody  ever  saw 
a  naturally  copper-colored  American  Indian  ;  their  hair  is 
black  and  wiry  and  almost  invariably  straight ;  their  eyes  are 
black  or  very  dark-brown ;  their  lips  are  thick  or  thin,  ac- 
cording to  the  tribe  or  individual ;  their  forehead  is  com- 
paratively low  ;  their  face  is  generally  long  with  high  cheek- 
bones ;  their  hands  and  feet  are  small  and  often  delicately 
made.  These  characteristic  traits  have  rarely  been  known 
to  vary  during  the  three  centuries  in  which  they  have  been 
in  contact  with  the  whites,  but  marked  differences  occur  be- 
tween the  various  tribes  as  to  physiognomy,  physique,  tem- 
perament, personal  attractiveness,  and  tint  of  complexion. 
This  has  been  observed  by  all  students  of  the  Indians  who 
have  been  fortunate  enough  to  have  wide  experience  among 
them.  Much  stress  has  been  placed  on  supposed  funda- 
mental differences  between  the  bones  of  the  Mound  Builders 
and  those  of  other  American  races.  These  differences  were 
more  apparent  while  the  material  was  scanty,  and  tend  to 
disappear  as  we  come  to  know  more  of  the  Indians  of  vari- 
ous parts  of  America,  and  to  have  larger  mound  material  for 
comparison.  It  has  been  said  that  the  Mound  Builders  are 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  195 

characterized  by  a  general  conformation  which  places  them 
apart  amongst  human  races,  and  differentiates  them  espe- 
cially from  the  Indians  of  North  America.  For  myself, 
however,  I  do  not  attach  as  much  importance  as  do  some 
eminent  anthropologists  to  differences  between  bones, 
especially  the  bones  of  skulls.  Too  often  we  find  beneath 
the  same  mound,  dating  from  contemporaneous  burials, 
amidst  similar  stone  implements  and  pieces  of  pottery, 
brachycephalic  and  dolichocephalic  skulls,  skulls  of  the 
Caucasian,  and  skulls  of  almost  negroid  type.  All  varieties, 
from  extreme  long  heads  to  rounded  or  nearly  square  heads 
have  been  found  among  undoubted  Eskimo  crania.1  The 
external  conformation  of  the  heads  can  only  be  guessed  at, 
and  therefore  any  conclusion  might  turn  out  to  be  pre- 
mature. 

Moreover,  however  true  these  assertions  may  be,  there  are, 
as  we  have  previously  intimated,  Indians  and  Indians.  The 
Indians  of  the  north  should  not  be  confounded  with  those 
met  with  by  the  Conquistadores  in  the  south,  and  who  were 
certainly  in  a  much  more  advanced  state  of  culture.  It  may 
be  supposed  that  the  wild  tribes  from  the  north  and  the 
northwest  first  drove  the  mound-building  people  from 
Illinois  and  Indiana  ;  that  those  of  Ohio,  protected  by  a 
solid  line  of  fortified  camps  or  villages,  offered  a  more 
efficacious  resistance,  but  that  they,  in  their  turn,  were 
driven  beyond  the  Mississippi  :  that  the  struggle  went  on  in 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  until  the  day  when  the  remnants 
of  this  ancient  people  were  driven  back  to  the  districts 
bordering  on  the  Gulf,  where  the  vanquished  were  gradually 
merged  with  the  conquerors,  and  that  thus  united  they 
contended  bravely  and  often  with  success  against  a  foreign 
yoke.* 

Perhaps  too  it  may  be  possible  to  meet  with  traces  of 

1  We  have  mentioned  numerous  facts  leading  to  a  similar  conclusion  in  Eu- 
rope. See,  also,  "  Les  premiers  hommes  et  les  temps  pre-historiques,"  vol. 
I.,  ch.  iii.,  and  vol.  II.,  ch.  xii. 

'Force:  A  quelle  race  appartenaient  les  Mound  Builders  ("Cong,  des 
Americanistes, "  Luxembourg,  vol.  I.,  p.  121.) 


196  PRE-IHSTORIC  AMERICA. 

people  akin  to  the  Mound  Builders  amongst  the  Aztecs, 
whose  stone  teocallis  resemble  the  conical  mounds  in  form, 
and  amongst  the  Mayas,1  of  whose  remarkable  monuments 
we  shall  presently  speak,  and  who  also  had  to  contend  with 
formidable  enemies.8 

There  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  that  tribes  who  were 
builders  of  mounds  lived  in  Central  America  for  centuries, 
but  we  have  no  chronological  scale  by  which  we  can  estimate 
the  duration  of  their  residence  there,  still  less  determine 
a  definite  emigration  to  or  arrival  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Mississippi  or  of  the  Missouri.  The  trees  growing  from  the 
mounds  of  Ohio  are  rarely  more  than  one  or  two  hundred 
years  old  ;  while  in  the  valleys  of  Florida  and  on  the  shores 
of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  they  are  not  even  so  old  as  that.  One 
conclusion  may  be  drawn :  that  the  mounds  had  been 
abandoned  when  they  became  overgrown  with  trees.  But 
were  these  trees  the  successors  of  others,  and  can  we  say  how 
many  generations  have  disappeared  since  the  erection  of  the 
mounds,  or  whether  the  latter  were  generally  contempo- 
raneous ?  We  were  met  by  a  similar  problem  in  dealing 
with  the  shell  heaps  and  we  can  only  give  a  similar  an- 
swer. 

From  the  mounds  themselves  we  can  learn  nothing.  A 
lapse  of  thirty  centuries  or  of  five  would  account  equally 
well  for  the  development  of  the  civilization  they  represent. 
Stronck  ascribes  the  erection  of  some  of  the  mounds  to  the 
earliest  days  of  our  own  era,  and  thinks  that  some  of  them 
must  have  been  abandoned  between  the  sixth  and  twelfth 

1  Robertson  speaks  of  having  disinterred  a  considerable  number  of  Mound 
Builders'  skulls,  and  says  that  they  have  in  every  case  been  of  a  type  somewhat 
resembling  that  of  the  natives  of  Yucatan  ("  Congres  des  Americanistes,"  Luxem- 
bourg, 1877,  vol.  I.,  p.  43.) 

2  The  examinations  of  the  organic  and  monumental  remains,  and  of  the  works 
of  art  of  the  aborigines  of  Tennessee,  by  Dr.  Jones,  in  his  opinion  establish 
the  fact  that  they  were  not  the  relics  of  the  nomadic  and  hunting  tribes  of 
Indians  such  as  many  known  to  exist  at  the  time  of  the  first  explorations  by  the 
white  race  ;  but  on  the  contrary  that  they  are  the  remains  of  a  people  more 
closely  related  to  but  not  identical  with  the  aborigines  of  Mexico  and  Central 
America,  "  Smithsonian  Contr.,"  vol.  XXII.,  p.  88. 


POTTERY,    WEAPONS,   AND   ORNAMENTS.  l<)7 

centuries.1  The  margin,  it  is  evident,  is  wide.  Force,8  in  fix- 
ing on  the  seventh  century  as  the  most  flourishing  period  of 
these  people,  and  Hellwald,1  in  making  them  contemporary 
with  Charlemagne,  would  appear  to  endorse  to  some  extent 
the  hypothesis  of  Stronck.  Short,  in  an  excellent  work 
on  the  North  American  Indians,  tells  us  that  one  or  at 
the  most  two  thousand  years  only  can  have  elapsed  since  the 
Mound  Builders  were  compelled  to  abandon  the  valleys 
of  the  Ohio  and  its  tributaries,  and  but  seven  or  eight  hundred 
since  they  retired  from  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
Lastly  the  early  explorers  found  mounds  occupied  and  even 
being  constructed  within  the  last  few  hundred  years.  So  we 
must  content  ourselves  with  the  conclusion  that,  whatever 
the  period  of  their  initiation,  it  is  probable  that  what  may  be 
called  the  epoch  of  mound-building,  but  recently  terminated, 
has  been  of  very  long  duration.  These  estimates,  divergent 
as  they  are,  may  serve  to  give  some  idea  of  our  ignorance 
in  regard  to  the  actual  antiquity  of  these  ruins. 

One  thing  is  certain,  no  excavations  of  the  mounds  up  to 
this  date  (1883)  have  yielded  a  single  bone  of  those  gigantic 
pachyderms,  those  extraordinary  edentate  creatures  which 
frequently  occur  in  earlier  epochs.  Must  we  not  therefore 
conclude  that  these  animals  were  extinct  before  the  times  of 
the  Mound  Builders?  One  of  the  mounds,  however  (fig. 
36),  as  already  stated,  is  claimed  to  represent  a  mastodon, 
and  some  pipes  from  Iowa  to  represent  elephants  (fig.  72) ; 
and  if  these  highly  problematical  assumptions  are  correct,  one 
might  presume  that  the  Mound  Builders  knew,  at  least  by 
tradition,  of  the  animals  they  imitated  ;  but  this  point,  like 
so  many  others,  is  still  very  obscure,  and  not  free  from  com- 
plications due  to  fraudulent  recently  manufactured"  relics." 

We  must  await  in  the  future  what  the  present  cannot 
give  us ;  and  meanwhile  be  on  our  guard  against  brilliant 
hypotheses,  startling  guesses,  and  over-rash  conclusions. 

1  Repertoire  chronologique  de  1'hist.  des  Mound  Builders,  "  Cong,  des 
Americ.,"  Luxembourg,  1877,  vol.  I.,  p.  312. 

*A  quelle  race  appartenaient  des  Mound  Builders. 
*"Cong.  des  American istes,"  Luxembourg,  vol.  I.,  p.  50. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    CLIFF    DWELLERS   AND     THE    INHABITANTS    OF    THE 

PUEBLOS. 

THE  nineteenth  century,  now  approaching  its  decline,  has 
played  a  grand  role  in  the  history  of  humanity,  and  never 
have  such  great  things  been  accomplished  with  such  marvel- 
lous rapidity.  We  justly  count  amongst  those  who  have 
had  a  glorious  share  in  the  common  work,  the  bold  travel- 
lers who  have  opened,  or  are  opening,  up  whole  conti- 
nents to  civilization  and  progress.  In  America,  as  in  Africa 
and  Asia,  the  pioneers  of  science  daily  announce  new  dis- 
coveries. The  vast  regions  of  California,  Arizona,  New 
Mexico.  Nevada,  Colorado,  and  Utah,  were,  a  few  years  ago, 
absolutely  unknown.  They  are  now  intersected  with  rail- 
ways ;  commerce  and  industry  will  shortly  possess  the  land  ; 
populous  towns  have  sprung  up,  and  new  states  contribute 
to  the  development  of  the  United  States,  and  the  greatness 
of  this  people,  youngest  born  of  the  nations,  which  is  un- 
doubtedly predestined  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  fu- 
ture history  of  the  world. 

While  awaiting  the  brilliant  future  of  the  states  recently 
or  to  be  admitted  to  the  Union,  we  have  to  cross  much  half 
desert,  rude,  and  desolate  region  where  the  trees,  chiefly 
pines,  are  rare  and  stunted,  the  vegetation  is  feeble  and 
meagre,  and  nature  would  at  first  sight  appear  to  be  doomed 
to  eternal  solitude.  The  very  wild  animals  have  almost 
deserted  these  dreary  wastes  which  are  only  haunted  by 
wandering  Indians,  perhaps  the  wildest  and  most  barbarous 
of  all  the  existing  aborigines  of  North  America,  who  not 
long  since  would  flee  at  the  approach  of  the  traveller  unless 
they  felt  themselves  strong  enough  to  rob  him.  We  must 
cross  the  San  Juan  river  to  reach  the  alluvial  districts  des- 

198 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  1 99 

tincd  doubtless  to  yield  a  harvest  so  rich  that  it  is  impossible 
to  overestimate  its  importance. 

Things  were  different  here  in  the  past.     These  caftons,  as 


FIG.  86. — A  Cafion  of  the  Colorado. 

are  called  the  narrow  gorges  shut  in  between  perpendicular 
rocks  (fig.  86)  with  their  deep  ravines,  these   arid  valleys 


2OO  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

covered  with  brushwood  rarely  more  than  a  few  feet  high, 
this  dreary  lifeless  nature,  presents  a  most  striking  contrast 
with  the  ruins  that  rise  up  at  every  turn,  bearing  witness 
that  for  centuries,  which  it  is  impossible  to  estimate,  these 
countries  were  inhabited  by  a  numerous,  active,  and  intelli- 
gent population.  In  many  man  has  built  houses,  fortifica- 
tions, reservoirs,  forming  true  cities ;  the  very  rocks  are 
adorned  with  painted  or  sculptured  figures ;  everywhere  man 
has  left  behind  him  indelible  marks  of  his  presence. 

The  Spanish,  who  were  the  first  to  cross  Central  America,1 
gave  the  name  of  pueblo,  which  signifies  a  market-town  or 
village,  to  groups  of  buildings,  a  great  number  of  which,  pre- 
senting every  appearance  of  great  antiquity,  were  already  in 
ruins  at  the  time  of  their  victorious  march.  These  buildings 
are  found  in  the  valleys  drained  by  the  San  Juan,  Rio  Grande 
del  Norte,  Colorado  Chiquito,  and  their  tributaries  for  an 
area  of  two  hundred  thousand  square  miles.3  The  earliest 
inhabitants  whose  traces  can  be  recognized  evidently  fol- 
lowed these  valleys  in  their  forward  march,  halting  here  and 
there  where  the  soil  was  fertile,  to  be  driven  away  by  new- 
comers, who,  like  themselves,  were  seeking  water  and  pas- 
turage. The  struggle  for  existence  is  a  universal  law  written 
in  every  country  in  letters  of  blood. 

Cabe^ade  Vaca  speaks  of  some  pueblos  in  ruins  and  others 
still  inhabited  * ;  many  he  says  were  larger  than  the  town  of 
Mexico.  The  houses,  often  consisting  of  several  stories,  one 
behind  the  other  as  in  our  illustration  (fig.  87),  were  of  stone. 
The  inhabitants  lived  in  the  upper  stories,4  and  the  ground 
floor,  generally  dark,  served  as  a  storeroom  for  food  and 
fodder.  These  basements  are  known  amongst  the  Spanish 
as  Casas  de  comodidad  or  Almacenas  (see  Castafleda  de  Na- 
gera,  Relacion  de  voy.  de  Cibola).  The  upper  stories  were 

'New  Mexico  was  finally  subdued  in  1597  and  1598  by  Don  Juan  de  Onate. 
The  first  Spanish  expedition  took  place  in  1540,  under  Cabeca  de  Vaca,  ship- 
wrecked on  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  in  1535. 

8  Barber,  "  Cong,  des  Americanistes,"  Luxembourg,  1877,  vol.  I.,  p.  25. 

*"  Quarta  Relacion     *     *     *     Collecion  de  Documentos,"  vol.  II.,  p.  475. 

4  Putnam,  "  Bull,  of  the  Essex  Institute,"  Dec.,  1880. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  2OI 

reached  by  means  of  ladders,  and  when  these  ladders  were 
drawn  up  the  occupiers  enjoyed  comparative  security,  and 
could  defend  themselves  from  attacks  which  must  have  been 
frequent  enough  judging  from  the  countless  quartz,  obsid- 
ian, and  agate  arrow-points  found  everywhere  about  these 
dwellings. 

The  buildings  were  nearly  all  of  considerable  size,  and  we 
shall  describe  some  large  enough  to  lodge  several  hundred 
families.  Some,  as  the  Taos  pueblo  (fig  87),  were  situated 
in  the  valley  and  were  occasionally  surrounded  by  a  wall 
completing  the  defences  ;  others,  as  the  Pueblo  of  Acoma  for 
instance,1  which  is  supposed  to  have  occupied  the  site  of  the 
present  village  of  Acuco,  rises  from  several  plateaux  or  ter- 


FIG.  87. — Pueblo  of  Taos,  New  Mexico. 

races  called  mesas,  often  situated  several  hundred  feet  above 
the  valley,  and  only  to  be  reached  by  all  but  impracticable 
paths.  We  can  imagine  the  astonishment  of  the  explorers 
when  they  saw  all  these  ruins  rising  before  them.  "  Im- 
agine," says  a  recent  traveller,  "  the  dry  bed  of  a  river  shut 
in  between  steep  inaccessible  rocks  of  red  sand-stone,  and  a 
man  standing  in  that  bed  looking  up  at  the  habitations  of 
his  fellow-creatures  perched  on  every  ledge.  Such  is  the 
scene  spread  out  before  us  at  every  step."  Another  travel- 
ler speaks  of  the  evident  proofs  of  a  considerable  population 

1  Y'  hallamos  a  un  pueblo  que  se  llama  Acoma,  donde  nos  parecio  habria 
mas  de  seis  mil  animas.  Antonio  de  Espeja,  "  Carta,"  23d  April,  1584.  Doc. 
ineditos  del  archive  de  Indias,  vol.  XV.,  p.  179. 


2O2  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

having  lived  in  these  deserts,  adding  that  there  was  not  one 
of  the  six  miles  he  had  to  explore  that  did  not  afford  certain 
proof  of  having  been  inhabited  for  a  considerable  length  of 
time  by  men  absolutely  distinct  from  and  certainly  superior 
to  the  wandering  savages  who  alone  traverse  them  now.1 

Lastly,  to  quote  another  of  the  many  accounts,  Major 
Powell,  United  States  geologist,  expresses  his  surprise  at 
seeing  nothing  for  whole  days  but  perpendicular  cliffs  every- 
where riddled  with  human  habitations,  which  resemble  the 
cells  of  a  honeycomb  more  than  anything  else. 

In  these  districts,  now  nearly  uninhabited,  dwelt  numer- 
ous people  to  whom  has  been  given  the  name  of  Cliff  Dwel- 
lers, from  the  rocks  in  which  they  made  their  homes. 

One  point  we  can  pronounce  upon  with  certainty :  we 
know  beyond  a  doubt  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  depopu- 
lation of  the  country  to  be  the  diminished  rainfall.  The 
rainfall  is  very  unequal  in  the  United  States.  It  averages 
about  three  feet  on  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Maine  to  Florida. 
On  the  slopes  of  the  Pacific,  north  of  San  Francisco,  the 
west  winds  bring  very  abundant  rains,  the  average  reaching 
some  four  feet.  From  the  coasts  of  the  Atlantic,  and  from 
the  delta  of  the  Mississippi,  the  quantity  of  rain  gradually 
diminishes  as  the  interior  of  the  country  is  approached.  In 
some  parts  of  Texas,  Kansas,  and  Nebraska,  the  average 
rainfall  of  the  year  diminishes  to  a  foot  and  a  half,  and  in 
parts  of  Colorado  it  is  even  considerably  less.  The  very 
small  rainfall  watering  all  the  districts  between  the  plains  of 
the  far  West  and  the  Pacific  coasts  explains  the  poverty  of 
the  vegetation. 

The  rivers,  the  very  streams,  are  dried  up,  and  we  only  find 
in  the  valleys  the  traces,  already  ancient,  of  dried-up  water- 
courses. 

The  rains  of  spring  are  of  short  duration,  but  plentiful. 
They  pour  down  upon  an  impermeable  soil  with  a  rocky 
foundation,  forming  impetuous  torrents  known  as  washes. 
At  certain  times  and  places  these  washes  rise  to  a  height  of 

'Holmes  :  "  Report  on  the  Ancient  Ruins  of  S.  W.  Colorado,  examined 
during  the  summers  of  1875  and  1876," 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  2O3 

thirty  to  forty  feet,  carrying  everything  before  them  and 
often  causing  inundations.  After  these  torrents  the  water 
does  not  long  remain  in  the  arroyos,  but  evaporates  with 
great  rapidity.  At  other  seasons  rain  is  unknown,  and  the 
intense  heat  of  the  climate  adds  to  the  effect  of  this  constant 
aridity.  Can  it  be  attributed  to  geological  or  climatic 
changes  ?  Possibly  it  may,  and  Colonel  Hoffman  mentions 
an  arroyo  forty  .feet  above  the  present  level  of  the  water 
about  fifteen  miles  from  the  town  of  Prescott,  Arizona.  This 
is  a  curious  fact,  but  it  should  be  corroborated  by  many  oth- 
ers before  so  important  a  decision  can  be  arrived  at,  and  it  is 
possible  that,  as  in  Algeria,  one  cause  of  the  persistent  aridity 
was  the  reckless  destruction  of  forests  by  the  Cliff  Dwellers. 

Holmes,  one  of  the  first  to  study  the  ruins  of  the  Far 
West,  on  a  truly  scientific  method,  adopts  the  following 
classification,  which  it  will  be  useful  to  quote.1 

I.  Lowland  villages,  in  which  dwelt  the  purely  agricultural 
classes,  the  sites  chosen  being  always  in  the  most  fertile  val- 
ley and  close  to  rivers. 

II.  Cave-Dwellings,  caves  artificially  enlarged,  often  closed 
and  strengthened  with  adobes  or  bricks  of   kneaded   clay 
dried  in  the  sun,  such  as  are  still  used  by  the  Indians  for 
building  their  huts. 

III.  Cliff-Houses,  true  fortresses  to  which  the  people  of 
the  valleys  probably  retired  when  danger  threatened. 

The  habitations  in  the  valleys  are  regular  pueblos  ;  they 
form  parallelograms  or  circles  marked  out,  where  the  nature 
of  the  ground  permitted,  with  great  regularity.  All  are 
built  of  stone  carefully  laid,  and  the  crevices  generally  filled 
with  clay  and  mud.  The  circular  ruins  met  with  are  some- 
times those  of  towers  used  as  defences  or  buildings  sixty  feet 
or  more  in  diameter,  enclosing  several  series  of  little  apart- 
ments with  one  in  the  centre  often  half  under  ground,  to 
which  the  Spaniards  have  given  the  name  of  estufas,  mean- 
ing literally  stove  or  sweating-room,  in  reference  to  their  use 
as  hot  air  bath-rooms  or  sweat-houses. 

'  L.  c.  p.  5.  See  also  Jackson:  "  Ruins  of  S.  W.  Colorado  in  1875  and  1877." 


204  PRE-IIISTORIC  AMERICA. 

The  estufas  have  been  much  discussed.  Some  think  they 
were  council-chambers  where  the  chiefs  of  the  tribe  met  to 
discuss  public  affairs  ;  others  look  upon  them  as  spots  con- 
secrated for  the  presence  of  the  sacred  fire,  so  long  the  ob- 
ject of  veneration  to  the  Indians.1  Others  think  the  estufas 
were  wells,  but  the  testimony  of  Ruiz  settles  the  question. 
Mariano  Ruiz  lived  for  a  long  time  amongst  the  Pecos  In- 
dians as  a  son  of  the  tribe  (Hijo  del  Pueblo),  and  he  relates 
that  these  Indians  preserved  the  sacred  fire  in  an  estufas 
until  1840,  when  the  five  families  who  alone  survived  became 
affiliated  with  another  tribe.  The  fire  was  kept  in  a  kind  of 
oven  and  was  never  allowed  to  emit  flames.  Ruiz  himself 
was  in  his  turn  charged  to  keep  it  up  but  he  refused,  influ- 
enced by  the  superstitious  fear  of  the  Indians,  that  he  who 
should  leave  his  brethren  after  having  watched  over  the 
sacred  fire  would  inevitably  perish  within  the  year.  On  ac- 
count of  his  refusal  he  was  never  allowed  to  enter  estufas.* 
It  is  certain  that  these  estufas  occur  in  all  habitations,  even 
in  those  situated  above  precipices,  or  on  rocks  not  to  be 
scaled  without  extreme  difficulty,  so  that  it  is  evident  that 
great  importance  was  attached  to  them  by  the  inhabitants  of 
the  pueblos.  In  New  Mexico  and  Colorado  estufas  are  still 
met  with,  even  in  Christian  villages,  where  they  are  looked 
upon  with  superstitious  terror,  perhaps  as  a  last  relic  of  the 
mysterious  rites  practised  by  the  ancestors  of  the  inhabi- 
tants.3 

Besides  the  towers  rising  from  the  midst  of  the  pueblo 
there  are  others  generally  round,  rarely  square  or  oblong 
(fig.  88),  set  up  on  points  commanding  a  wide  view,  or  at  the 
entrances  of  cafions.  It  is  evident  that  these  were  posts  of 

1  "  These  estufas,  which  are  used  as  places  of  council  and  for  the  perform- 
ance of  their  religious  rites,  are  still  found  at  all  the  present  occupied  pueblos 
in  New  Mexico.  There  are  six  at  Taos  ;  three  at  each  house,  and  they  are 
partly  sunk  in  the  ground  by  an  excavation.  They  are  entered  by  a  trap  door- 
way in  the  roof,  the  descent  being  by  a  ladder."  Morgan  :  "  Peabody  Museum 
Report,"  vol.  II.,  p.  547.  Am.  Assco.,  St.  Louis,  1877. 

*  Bandeller,  "  Report  on  the  Ruins  of  the  Pueblo  of  Pecos." — "  Cong,  des 
Americ,"  Luxembourg,  1877,  vol.  II.,  p.  230. 

1  Simpson,  "  Expedition  to  the  Navajo  Country,"  p.  78. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  2O$ 

observation,  where  sentinels  might  be  always  on  the  watch 
to  warn  the  inhabitants  of  any  impending  danger.  The  site 
of  these  posts  was  always  admirably  chosen  ;  one  of  them 
overlooks  the  whole  of  the  MacElmo  valley,  commanding 
a  view  for  several  miles  up  and  down  ;  another  is  situated  at 
the  spot  where  the  Hovenweep  divides  into  two  branches. 
These  towers  have  neither  doors  nor  windows,  and  could 
doubtless  only  be  entered  from  the  roof. 

Near  some  of  these  dwellings  long  lines  of  walls  have 
been  made  out  varying  from  twelve  to  eighteen  feet  in 
height  and  built  of  adobes  or  simply  of  earth.  These  were 
probably  corrals  or  enclosures  for  cattle.  Evidently  these 
people  were  more  civilized  than  the  Mound  Builders. 

The  cliffs  themselves  consist  of  sedimentary  rocks,  layers 
of  hard  sandstone  very  impervious  to  the  action  of  the  ele- 
ments alternating  with  beds  of  very  friable  rock  containing 
fossil  shells.  The  last-named  beds  have  been  in  part  disinte- 
grated by  atmospheric  action,  and  are  riddled  with  holes 
and  caves  of  every  size,  floored  and  roofed  by  the  sandstone. 
In  other  places  erosion  has  acted  all  along  the  outcrop  of 
the  bed  so  as  to  produce  galleries,  often  of  great  length, 
though  seldom  very  deep.  Here  and  there  a  lofty  promon- 
tory has  been  detached  from  the  main  cliff  and  has  become 
even  more  difficult  of  access  than  the  rest. 

The  early  inhabitants  of  the  region  under  notice  were 
wonderfully  skilful  in  turning  the  result  of  the  natural 
weathering  of  the  rocks  to  account.  To  construct  a  "  cave 
dwelling"  the  entrance  to  the  cave  or  the  front  of  the  open 
gallery  was  walled  up  with  adobes,  leaving  only  a  small 
opening  serving  for  both  door  and  window. 

The  "  cliff  houses  "  take  the  form  and  dimensions  of  the 
platform  or  ledge  from  which  they  rise.  The  masonry  is 
well  laid,  and  it  is  wonderful  with  what  skill  the  walls  are 
joined  to  the  cliff  and  with  what  care  the  aspect  of  the 
neighboring  rocks  has  been  imitated  in  the  external  archi- 
tecture. Some  explorers  consider  these  houses  to  be  more 
recent  than  the  pueblos  or  the  caves;  the  few  arrow-points, 


20)6  PRE-HISTOR1C  AMERICA. 

stone  implements,  and  fragments  of  pottery  which  have 
been  picked  up  do  not  justify  an  expression  of  opinion. 

Several  burial-places  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers  have  been  found, 
but  the  difficulty  attending  their  excavation,  and  the  dangers 
to  which  the  members  of  the  United  States  survey  who 
undertook  it  were  exposed,  have  prevented  any  repetition  of 
their  examination.  Nothing  has  been  found  but  a  few 
human  bones,  with  weapons,  implements,  and  pottery  always 
placed  near  them.  Like  the  Mound  Builders  and  all  the 
ancient  races  of  America,  the  Cliff  Dwellers  were  actuated 
by  a  hope  of  a  future  life  for  their  departed  ones,  as  it 
proved  by  this  provision  for  their  supposed  needs. 

We  must  also  mention  enclosures  of  considerable  extent 
containing  upright  stones  like  the  cromlechs  of  Europe, 
arranged  in  circles.  Excavations  have  been  made  in  one  of 
these  enclosures  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Dolores ;  the  original 
soil,  which  had  not  been  displaced,  was  quickly  reached,  and 
rested  on  the  surface  of  the  rock  itself.  At  a  depth  of  six 
inches  was  found  a  layer  of  cinders  mixed  with  fragments  of 
pottery,  but  no  bones  justifying  us  in  supposing  the  enclos- 
ures to  have  been  burial-places,  nor  has  the  chemical  analysis 
of  the  cinders  yielded  any  trace  of  animal  matter,  so  that 
the  idea  of  cremation  is  excluded.1 

Having  enumerated,  in  a  general  way,  the  various  struc- 
tures attributed  to  the'  Cliff  Dwellers,  a  few  details  respect- 
ing each  will  render  their  importance  clearer. 

The  Rio  Mancos  2  flows  between  cliffs,  formed  of  alter- 
nate beds  of  cretaceous  limestone  and  a  clayey  deposit,  in 
many  parts  disintegrated  and  worn  away  by  the  action  of 
water.  One  of  the  indentations  thus  formed,  situated  about 
forty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  river,  is  between  four  and 

1  Jackson,  /.  c.,  pp.  415,  421,  etc. 

*  The  Mancos  rises  in  the  La  Plata  mountains,  on  the  southwest  of  the  Col- 
orado, and  flows  into  the  San  Juan.  The  other  tributaries  of  the  San  Juan,  to 
which  we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer,  are  the  La  Piedra,  Los  Pinos,  Las  Ani- 
mas,  La  Plata,  the  MacElmo,  Hovenweep,  and  the  Montezuma.  The  two  last 
are  almost  always  dried  up.  On  the  south,  the  San  Juan  receives  the  Navajo, 
Chaco,  and  Chelly. 


FIG.  88. — Tower  near  Epsom  Creek. 


208 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


FIG.  89. — Cliff-house  on  theRio 
Mancos. 


six  feet  deep.1  In  this  nar- 
row space  the  Cliff  Dwellers 
had  set  up  their  homes. 
Seven  of  these  homes  still 
remain,  four  in  a  sufficiently 
good  state  of  preservation 
for  the  mode  of  their  con- 
struction to  be  made  out. 
The  walls  are  of  stones,  ce- 
mented with  clay  mixed  with 
cinders  and  charcoal.2  This 
mortar  was  strengthened  by 
the  insertion,  in  the  intersti- 
ces, of  pebbles  or  little  bits  of 
pottery,  and  to  this  day  we 
can  make  out  in  this  masonry 
the  marks  of  the  tools  used, 
and  even  the  fingers  of  the 
workmen.  All  the  openings 
are  very  narrow,  and  the 
doors  and  windows  are  only 
a  few  inches  in  width  or 
height.  In  the  midst  of  the 
ruins  a  cellar  was  discovered, 
choked  up  with  a  mass  of 
rubbish,  once  a  store  of  food, 
from  which  half -calcined 
grains  of  maize  have  been 
taken,  of  a  species  still  culti- 
vated in  the  country.  A 
hatchet  of  polished  stone 
and  a  few  fragments  of  pot- 

I  Holmes:      Loc.   cit.,   p.   393,  pi. 
XXXV. 

II  Castaneda ("  Voy.  de  Cibola,"!!., 
ch.  iv.,  p.   168),  says:     "They  have 
no  lime,  and  they  replace  it  by  a  mix- 
ture of  cinders,  charcoal,  and  clay. " 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS. 


209 


tery  were  the  only  other  objects  found    in   the  excavations, 
which  had  to  be  rapidly  executed. 

Another  group  (fig.  89),  a  short  distance  from  the  first, 
rises  from  the  indentations  of  the  rock,  which  towers  above 
the  river  to  a  height  of  about  two  hundred  feet.  The  lower 
structures  occupy  a  free  space,  sixty  feet  long  by  about  fif- 
teen feet  at  its  widest  part  (fig.  90).  The  walls  are  about 
one  foot  thick,  and  are  flush  with  the  very  edge  of  the  preci- 
pice. They  are  erected  with  skill,  the  angles  are  regular, 
the  lines  do  not  diverge  from  the  perpendicular,  and,  when 
the  difficulties  the  builder  had  to  contend  with  in  laying  his 
foundations  in  such  a  position  and  at  such  a  height  are  taken 


FIG.  90. — Cliff-house  on  the  Rio  Mancos  (ground  plan). 

into  account,  these  aerial  dwellings  may  well  excite  our  ad- 
miration. In  the  centre  we  find  the  inevitable  estufa,  and, 
as  far  as  we  can  now  tell,  it  could  only  be  entered  by  an 
opening  of  twenty-two  inches  ;  and,  moreover,  in  order  to 
reach  this  strange  door,  a  regular  tunnel,  thirty  feet  long, 
had  to  be  crawled  through.  The  various  rooms  were  sep- 
arated by  division  walls,  which  did  not  reach  to  the  rock 
above,  so  that  communication  between  them  was  easy  by 
means  of  movable  ladders. 

Some  hastily  conducted  excavations  yielded  two  vases  of 
coarse  pottery,  closed  with  stone  covers  of  equally  rude 
workmanship.  These  vases,  which  would  hold  three  gallons,. 
were  empty  ;  one  of  them  had  been  mended  with  a  fragment 
of  the  same  color,  stuck  upon  it  with  viscous  clay  ;  they 


210  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

were  placed  on  a  bed  of  bark  fibres  covered  with  a  mat  of 
woven  reeds,1  another  proof  of  the  value  placed  upon  them 
by  their  owner. 

Between  the  two  houses  the  rock  is  absolutely  vertical ;  at 
a  place  where  the  slope  is  a  little  less  abrupt  some  steps 
roughly  indicated  rather  than  cut  in  the  rocks  have  been 
made  out.  At  present  they  offer  very  little  assistance  in 
climbing  the  cliff.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  these  in- 
dentations, never  very  deep,  have  suffered  by  weathering. 

At  the  level  of  the  upper  story  another  ledge  has  per- 
mitted the  erection  of  another  structure.  This  second  plat- 
form is  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  long  by  ten 
at  its  greatest  width.  The  work  appears  never  to  have  been 
completed.  The  Cliff  Dwellers  were  probably  discouraged 
by  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  bringing  their  materials 
to  the  spot. 

The  finished  parts  had  been  inhabited,  and  the  rooms 
communicated  with  each  other  by  means  of  low  and  narrow 
doors.  In  one  of  these  rooms  the  explorers  thought  they 
recognized  traces  of  a  fire,  in  others  the  excavations  yielded 
some  grains  of  maize  and  some  kidney  beans ;  but  unfortu- 
nately the  explorers,  exhausted  with  a  long  march,  could  not 
or  did  not  search  further. 

In  some  instances  the  houses  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers  were  at  a 
very  much  greater  height.  Some  are  mentioned,  by  Holmes, 
eight  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  river,  so  well  con- 
cealed that  even  with  the  aid  of  a  telescope  they  can  hardly 
be  distinguished  from  the  rocks  protecting  them.  We  lose 
ourselves  in  conjectures  on  the  means  employed  to  reach  the 
places  from  which  the  buildings  rise,  or  to  take  to  them 
provisions  and  other  necessaries  of  life.  Ives,  in  his  report 
on  the  Colorado  River  of  the  West,  tells  us  that  to-day  the 
Moquis  often  build  at  very  great  elevations,  carrying  the 
stones  and  earth  needed  in  packs  on  their  shoulders.  For  a 
long  time  it  was  supposed  that  all  the  Cliff  men  had  to 
go  down  to  the  river  to  draw  water;  but  fresh  researches 

1  Holmes  :    Lot.  fit.,  pi.  XLV. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS. 


211 


have  led  to  the  discovery  in  certain  localities  in  the  cliffs 
themselves  of  springs,  the  waters  of  \vhich  supplied  their 
needs  and  were  stored  up  in  natural  or  artificially  enlarged 
reservoirs. 


FIG.  91. — Two-storied  house  on  the  Rio  Mancos. 


FIG.  92. — Cliff-house  on  the  Mancos  (ground  plan). 

A  mile  farther  on,  still  following  the  banks  of  the  Rio 
Mancos,  Jackson  discovered  a  structure  seven  hundred  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  river  (figs  91  and  92).  This  building, 
to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  the  Two-story  Cliff  House, 


212 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


is  better  preserved  than  any  of  those  surrounding  it.  One 
of  the  rooms  measures  nine  feet  by  ten,  another  is  six 
feet  square,  while  the  height  of  the  building  is  twelve  feet, 
and  there  is  a  space  of  between  two  and  three  feet  between 
the  walls  and  the  rock  which  overhangs  them  like  a  roof. 
These  rooms,  which  appear  to  us  so  small,  were  large  for 
the  Cliff  Dwellers,  and  Jackson  speaks  of  another  place 
where  a  space  of  fourteen  feet  long  by  six  wide  and  five 
high  was  divided  into  two  rooms  of  nearly  equal  size,  to 
which  entrance  was  gained  through  a  little  square  hole. 
Examples  might  easily  be  multiplied ;  at  Montezuma, 
for  instance,  there  are  cells  of  which  the  largest  are  not  more 


FIG.  93. — Interior  of  a  room  in  a  cliff-house. 

than  nine  and  a  half  feet  square,  whilst  the  smaller  ones  are 
not  quite  four  feet  square.  It  seems  astonishing  that  human 
creatures  could  exist  in  such  cramped  spaces  ! 

The  inside  walls  of  these  rooms  (fig.  93)  were  covered 
with  several  coatings  of  clay  moistened  with  water.  This 
mortar  was  laid  on  with  the  hand ;  the  marks  of  the  fingers 
of  the  workmen  leave  no  doubt  on  that  point.  The  small- 
ness  of  these  fingers  has  even  led  some  to  suppose  that  the 
work  was  done  by  women. 

The  same  care  was  bestowed  on  the  outside  coating,  and 
the  mortar  is  gray  or  pinkish  in  color,  exactly  imitating 
that  of  the  neighboring  rocks.  It  is  impossible  to  say 


THE    CLIFF  DWELLERS. 


213 


whether  this  is  the  result  of  the  action  of  time,  or  if  the 
workmen  selected  the  clay  with  a  view  of  better  concealing 
their  homes. 

Were  these  cliff-houses  only  places  of  refuge,  to  which  the 
inhabitants  of  the  valley  retired  on  the  approach  of  danger? 
Holmes  says  that  we  are  tempted  to  suppose  they  were, 
when  we  note  the  all  but  total  absence  of  the  bones  of  men 
or  animals,  or  of  the  refuse  of  all  kinds  so  plentiful  in  the 
kitchen  middens,  and  which  are  proofs  of  long  residence. 


FIG.  94. — Pueblo  of  the  MacElmo  valley  (ground  plan). 

The  coatings  of  clay  have  remained  as  fresh  and  compact  as 
when  they  were  first  laid  on  ;  a  fact  especially  noticeable  in 
the  Two-story  Cliff-House ;  and  if  it  had  been  long  inhab- 
ited it  must  have  undergone  a  thorough  repair  just  before 
it  was  deserted.  Other  explorers,  it  is  true,  speak  of  char- 
coal and  traces  of  fire  as  proving  a  lengthy  sojourn  of  man  ; 
but  archeologists  too  generally  come  to  the  study  of  such 
remains  with  preconceived  notions,  which  notions  are  too 
often  reflected  in  the  impressions  of  travellers. 


214 


PRE-HISTORIC    AMERICA. 


The  MacElmo  valley  contains  ruins  no  less  important 
than  those  just  mentioned.  We  reproduce  (fig.  94)  a  plan 
of  one  of  them,  which  is  useful  as  giving  an  idea  of  the  gen- 
eral arrangement  of  a  pueblo.  The  large  tower  or  estufa 
presents  a  certain  resemblance  to  the  singular  structures  in 
the  Balearic  Isles  to  which  the  name  of  Talayoti  has  been 
given.  It  is  built  of  unhewn  stone,  and  is  surrounded  by  a 
triple  wall.  The  space  between  the  two  external  walls  is 
only  five  feet,  and  it  contains  fourteen  cells.  Another 
estufa,  with  walls  more  than  three  feet  thick,  is  situated  at 


FlG.  95. — Tower  on  the  summit  of  a  rock  in  the  MacElmo  valley. 

one  of  the  extremities.     The  rooms,  or  rather  the  cells,  are 
rectangular  and  all  extremely  small. 

This  pueblo  is  in  the  heart  of  a  rather  barren  district,  and 
and  is  about  a  mile  from  the  MacElmo  river,  which  always 
dries  up  in  summer.  The  unfortunate  inhabitants  must  then 
have  been  reduced  for  several  months  in  the  year  to  fetching 
their  water  from  the  Dolores,  at  a  distance  of  fifteen  miles, 
if  we  suppose  the  conditions  to  have  remained  unchanged. 
This  is,  however,  quite  an  inadmissible  idea,  for  no  agricul- 


'I HI-.    CLII-I--  DWELLERS.  21$ 

tural  population  could  have  lived  under  such  conditions. 
"  To  suppose  an  agricultural  people  existing  in  such  a  local- 
ity, with  the  present  climate,  is  manifestly  absurd,"  says 
Holmes  (p.  399)  ;  "  yet  every  isolated  rock  and  every  bit  of 
mesa  within  a  circle  of  miles  is  strewn  with  remnants  of 
human  dwellings  (fig.  95).  We  must  therefore  admit,  as 
we  have  already  stated,  considerable  climatic  changes  since 
the  time  when  the  country  was  peopled." 

The  same  remark  applies  with  even  greater  force  to  the 
ruins  of  Aztec  Spring  in  Colorado,  so  called  after  a  spring 
(E,  fig.  96)  that  Captain  Moss  speaks  of  having  found,  but 
which  has  disappeared  since  his  journey.  These  ruins  (fig. 
96),  situated  on  the  Mesa  Verde,  at  an  equal  distance  from 
the  MacElmo  and  the  Mancos,  cover  an  area  of  480,000 
square  feet,  and  represent  an  average  of  1,500,000  cubic 
feet  of  masonry. 

The  principal  building  forms  a  rectangle  (A),  eighty  feet  by 
one  hundred,  surrounded  by  a  double  wall  and  divided  into 
three  separate  rooms.  The  walls  are  twenty-six  inches  thick 
and  vary  from  twelve  to  fifteen  feet  in  height ;  between  the 
two  walls  are  twenty  cells  whose  purpose  it  is  difficult  to 
guess,  but  which  may  have  been  store-rooms. 

Three  estufas  (B,  C,  and  D)  rise  in  the  centre  of  the  en- 
closure, and  as  far  as  can  be  judged  in  their  present  condi- 
tion, they  may  well  have  served  as  cisterns  for  keeping  the 
water  needed  by  the  inhabitants. 

The  division  walls  are  of  adobe  brick,  the  outer  walls  of 
blocks  of  fossiliferous  limestone  from  the  Mesa  Verde,  all 
symmetrically  hewn  and  cemented  with  clay  mixed  with 
the  dust  of  the  decomposed  carbonate  of  lime  abundant  in 
the  neighborhood.  It  is  doubtless  thanks  to  this  mortar 
that  the  ruins  of  Aztec  Spring  are  so  well  preserved. 

The  Hovenweep,  now  entirely  dry  (the  name  is  borrowed 
from  the  Ute  language  and  signifies  desert  cation},  once 
flowed  between  abrupt  and  desolate  cliffs.  Everywhere  in 
the  valley  we  meet  with  series  of  ruins,  including  at  every 
turn  those  strange  dwellings  of  several  stories  perched — 


2l6 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


that  is  just  the  expression  for  it — on  all  the  ledges  or  ter- 
races of  the  cliffs.  Here  we  note  the  exceptional  circum- 
stance that  the  houses  are  circular,  their  diameter  not  ex- 


FIG.  96. — Aztec  Spring  (ground  plan). 

ceeding  twelve  to  fifteen  feet,  the  angles  are  rounded,  and  the 
walls  built  of  stones,  each  as  large  as  three  ordinary  bricks. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  21? 

Every  thing  seems  to  have  been  done  with  a  view  to  de- 
fence ;  the  houses  were  all  but  inaccessible,  and  little  watch- 
towers  had  been  erected  at  every  point  commanding  an  ex- 
tended view.  On  a  natural  terrace  measuring  scarcely  three 
hundred  feet  by  fifty,  situated  at  the  very  source  of  the 
Hovenweep,  the  Cliff  Dwellers  had  managed  to  erect  no  less 
than  forty  different  houses. 

Montezuma  valley1  is  at  certain  points  ten  miles  wide. 
It  is  covered  with  ruins:  towers  with  a  triple  enclosure, 
mounds  made  up  in  a  great  measure  of  pieces  of  broken  pot- 
tery. The  cliffs  overlooking  the  valley  present  a  long  series 
of  caves,  ledges,  and  rock-shelters,  invariably  turned  to  ac- 
count by  man  (fig.  97).  In  many  places  holes  have  been 
observed,  cut  in  the  rock  at  regular  distances,  in  which  the 
feet  and  hands  could  be  successively  placed.  These  were 
the  only  means  of  access ;  no  tree  native  to  these  valleys 
could  have  supplied  ladders  long  enough  to  reach  these 
eagles'  nests.  In  one  of  these  rock-shelters  the  explorer 
discovered  the  skeleton  of  a  man,  wrapped  in  a  covering 
with  broad  black  and  white  stripes.  This  man  had,  how- 
ever, no  connection  with  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  these 
aerial  dwellings.  According  to  all  appearances  he  was  a 
Navajo,  a  victim  to  the  incessant  warfare  between  his  tribe 
and  the  Utes. 

We  must  also  mention  seven  erect  stones  in  the  Monte- 
zuma valley,  which  rise  in  the  midst  of  its  desert  like  the 
menhirs  of  Brittany  or  Wales.  Later  observations,  however, 
lead  to  a  belief  that  these  were  not  menhirs,  but  pillars  in- 
tended to  strengthen  defensive  works.  Defence,  in  fact,  seems 
to  have  ever  occupied  the  thoughts  of  these  men ;  for  in  a 
radius  of  fifteen  miles,  at  every  point  commanding  the  valley 
or  that  could  serve  as  a  post  of  observation,  we  find  blocks  torn 
from  the  neighboring  rocks  and  piled  up  one  on  the  other, 
the  interstices  being  filled  with  small  stones  to  consolidate 
the  mass.  Every  thing  bears  witness  to  the  presence  of  a 
numerous  population  ;  such  works  can  indeed  only  have  been 
constructed  by  numbers. 

1  Jackson,  /.  c.,  p.  427  ft.  seq. 


218 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


The  rocks  of  the  Rio  de  Chelly  enclose  habitations  ex- 
actly similar  to  those  we  have  just  described.  In  fact  we 
are  doomed  to  inevitable  repetition  in  describing  the  remains 
of  the  Cliff  Dwellers,  of  whom  these  buildings,  a  few  frag- 
ments of  pottery,  and  wretched  flint  implements  are  the  only 


FIG.  97 — House  in  a  rock  of  Montezuma  canon. 

relics.  On  the  Rio  de  Chelly,  as  in  the  Montezuma  valley 
and  on  the  banks  of  the  Mancos  or  the  MacElmo,  natural 
and  artificial  caves,  depressions,  and  the  smallest  ledges  have 
been  turned  to  account.  The  buildings  are  often  of  excep- 


THE    CUFF  DWELLERS.  2ig 

tional  importance,  and  Jackson,  (/.  c.,  p.  421)  speaks  of  some 
ruins  at  an  elevation  of  seventy  feet  which  he  calls  a  Cave 
town.  They  are  545  feet  long  by  a  maximum  width  of  forty 
feet.  Nearly  all  include  a  ground-floor  and  one  story ;  one  of 
them  indeed  has  two  stories,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  the 
house  of  the  chief.  The  walls  are  everywhere  very  thin, 
none  of  them  exceeding  one  foot  in  thickness,  while  some 
are  but  half  as  much.  The  stones  are  imbedded  in  a  thick 
mortar  and  coated  with  it  inside  and  out.  Seventy-five  sepa- 
rate rooms  have  been  made  out,  with  the  inevitable  estufa 
in  the  centre,  and  behind  the  house  are  two  little  reservoirs 
for  holding  water^  None  of  these  houses  have  any  openings 
but  the  windows  which  almost  all  face  an  inside  court,  and 
examination  has  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  no  means  of  ac- 
cess but  broken  pieces  of  rock  and  natural  fissures  which 
might  be  used  as  a  help  in  climbing  ;  several  corrals  or  interior 
courts,  are  still  full  of  dung  reduced  to  dust ;  how  did  these 
Cliff  men  ever  get  cattle  up  to  such  a  height,  and  how  could 
they  subsist  them  on  steep  rocks  with  no  outlets?  Any 
number  of  guesses  may  be  made,  but  it  must  be  admitted 
that  none  are  completely  satisfactory.  The  height  of  the 
rocks  of  schistose  sandstone  which  crown  these  structures  is 
no  less  than  two  hundred  feet  above  the  foot  of  the  Mesa. 
The  descent  from  this  point  is  therefore  even  more  difficult 
than  the  ascent  from  the  valley.  The  Mesa  is  arid,  desolate, 
and  covered  with  stunted  vegetation. 

At  the  foot  of  the  rocks  we  see  a  number  of  upright 
stones  surrounding  rectangular  spaces  such  as  those  of 
which  we  have  already  spoken.  Here,  too,  excavations 
have  produced  nothing  to  suggest  that  these  stones  marked 
burial-places.  Some  red  earthenware,  knives,  hatchets, 
awls,  and  finely  chipped  stone  arrow-points  are  all  that  have 
been  found. 

We  give  a  drawing  (fig.  99)  of  a  house  built  at  a  height 
of  seventy  feet  about  two  miles  from  Cave  Town.  This 
will  help  us  to  realize  the  difficulties  of  access  and  the 
means  employed  to  surmount  them.  The  house  is  one 


220 


PRE-HISTOR1C  AMERICA. 


story  high  ;  the  ground-floor  measures  eighteen  feet  by  ten, 
and  this  narrow  space  forms  two  separate  rooms,  whilst  the 
first  story  consists  of  only  one.  The  overhanging  rock 
serves  as  a  protecting  roof.  Eight  miles  from  Cave  Town 
is  another  group  of  similar  buildings  of  smaller  size. 

The  whole  of  Epsom  Creek  valley,  so  called  after  a 
stream  of  brackish  water  which  is  said  to  taste  something 
like  Epsom  salts,  is  covered  with  ruins  of  a  smaller  size  than 
those  already  noticed.  These  are  chimney-like  caves  (fig. 
98),  which  Jackson  calls  "  cubby-holes,"  and  are  situated 
now  on  the  banks  of  a  stream,  now  wedged  like  sandwiches 
between  the  layers  of  rock.  These  dwellings  generally  con- 
tain but  a  single  room,  the  walls  of  which  are  so  perfectly 


FIG.  98. — Cave-Town  near  the  San  Juan. 

coated  that  even  now  there  is  not  a  crack  in  the  mortar. 
The  entrance  to  the  valley  was  defended  by  a  tower  (fig.  88) 
on  an  inaccessible  elevation,  which  Mr.  Jackson  made  many 
fruitless  efforts  to  scale;  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  stream 
rises  another  circular  tower  forty  feet  in  diameter,  of  which 
the  antiquity  is  attested  by  its  crumbling  walls  covered  with 
moss  and  brushwood. 

A  few  miles  up  stream,  on  the  banks  of  a  deep  ravine,  are 
ruins  presenting  the  aspect  of  a  fortified  town.  Explorers 
found  themselves  face  to  face  with  a  great  mass  of  rectan- 
gular form,  with  towers  connected  with  each  other  and  ar- 
ranged on  either  side  of  the  ravine,  so  as  to  command  all 


•' 


FlG.  99 — Cliff-house  in  the  Canon  de  Chelly. 


221 


222 


PKE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


the  approaches.  The  dominant  idea  amongst  these  people 
seems  to  have  been  dread  of  the  attacks  of  enemies,  hence 
the  necessity  of  being  always  prepared  to  repulse  them. 
"  The  San  Juan  valley,"  said  the  San  Francisco  Evening 
Bulletin  of  July  8,  1864,  "is  strewn  with  ruins  for  hundreds 
of  miles ;  some  buildings  three  stories  high,  of  masonry,  are 
still  standing." 

The  buildings  on  the  banks  of  the  La  Plata,  twenty-five 
miles  from  its  junction  with  the  San  Juan,  and  five  miles 
south  of  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad,  should  also  be  men- 


FIG.  100. — Casa  Grande  in  the  Gila  valley. 

tioned,  if  only  on  account  of  their  peculiar  arrangement. 
They  stretch  away  irregularly  throughout  the  valley ;  each 
family  had  its  own  home.  Every  thing  bears  witness  to  a 
state  of  culture  different  from  those  hitherto  noticed.  The 
family  seems  to  have  come  into  existence,  and  isolated 
dwellings,  such  as  we  meet  with  in  all  countries  of  Europe, 
show  still  better  the  independence  of  their  inhabitants. 
"These  houses,"  says  Holmes  (I.e.,  p.  388),  "seem  to  be 
distributed  very  much  as  dwelling-houses  are  in  the  rural 
districts  of  civilized  and  peaceable  communities." 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  22$ 

Cliff  houses  are  as  numerous  in  Arizona  as  in  New  Mexico, 
but  their  sites  seem  to  have  been  better  chosen,  and  the 
foundations  are  of  stone,  though  there  is  nothing  to  lead  us 
to  suppose  them  to  be  older  than  the  walls  of  adobes  rising 
from  them.  We  have  now  reached  the  extreme  southern 
limit  of  the  districts  occupied  by  the  Cliff  Dwellers,  and  the 
vast  heaps  of  broken  earthenware  met  with  at  every  turn 
bear  witness  to  the  great  length  of  their  residence. 

Amongst  all  these  ruins,  the  Casa  Grande  (fig.  100) 
merits  special  mention.  It  rises  from  a  little  eminence  in 
the  valley  of  the  Rio  Gila,  two  miles  and  a  half  from  the 
river,  and  it  appears  certain  that  it  had  existed  for  several 
centuries  before  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards,  who  knew  of  it 
from  the  time  of  their  very  earliest  expeditions  ;  indeed,  it 
is  generally  admitted  that  it  is  to  it  that  Coronado  refers 
under  the  name  of  the  chichilticalle  or  the  red  house.  The 
first  at  all  complete  description,  however,  which  has  come 
down  to  us,  is  that  of  Father  Mange,  who  visited  the  Casa 
Grande  with  Father  Kino,  in  1697.'  It  appears  that  at  that 
date  the  ruins  included  eleven  different  buildings,  surmounted 
by  a  protective  wall  of  moderate  height.  Now  these  build- 
ings are  reduced  to  three,  only  one  of  which  is  still  in  a  state 
permitting  of  its  examination.  It  is  built  of  large  adobes 
measuring  four  feet  by  two,  and  it  is  fifty  feet  by  forty  feet 
in  size.  The  walls  are  five  feet  thick  at  the  base,  and  gradu- 
ally decrease  in  breadth  toward  the  top."  The  inside  is  di- 
vided in  five  rooms  (fig.  101),  much  larger  than  any  hitherto 
described.  The  central  of  these  rooms  are  eight  feet  long  by 
fourteen  wide  ;  the  others  are  as  much  as  thirty-two  feet 
long  by  ten  wide.1  Fragments  of  cedar-wood  beams,  still 
inserted  in  the  walls,  prove  that  the  buildings  originally  con- 
sisted of  three,  perhaps  in  its  central  portion  of  four,  stories. 

1  "Doc,  Hist.  Mex.,"  Series  IV.,  vol.  I.,  p.  282.  Bancroft:  loc.  cit.,  vol. 
IV.,  p.  621,  et  seq. 

"Bartlett  :  "Personal  Narrative  of  Explorations  and  Incidents  in  Texas,  New 
Mexico,  California,  Sonora,  and  Chihuahua."  New  York,  1854,  vol.  II.,  p. 
271,  et  seq. 

'  Judging  by  the  plan,  these  measurements  appear  to  be  mere  rough  approxi- 
mations. 


224  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

No  staircase,  nor  any  thing  to  take  its  place,  can  be  made 
out,  so  that  communication  between  the  stories  must  have 
taken  place  by  means  of  ladders.  A  vast  conflagration  has 
everywhere  left  indelible  traces,  and  this  is  supposed  to  have 
been  the  work  of  the  Apaches,  the  wildest  and  most  indomi- 
table of  all  the  Indian  tribes. 

The  Casa  Grande  was  the  centre  of  an  important  estab- 
lishment. Bartlett  tells  us  that  in  every  direction  as  far  as 
the  eye  can  reach  we  see  crumbling  walls  and  masses  of  rub- 
bish, the  remains  of  old  buildings ;  while  Fathers  Mange, 
Kino,  and  Font  say  that  the  plain  was  covered  for  a  radius 
of  ten  miles  with  hillocks  of  adobes  turned  to  dust.  In  fact 
volumes  would  not  suffice  to  describe  all  the  ruins  in  these 


FIG.  101. — Ground  plan  of  the  Casa  Grande. 

regions  or  all  the  people  who  have  inhabited  them.  We  can 
only  name  those  of  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Salado  and  its 
tributary  the  Rio  Verde,  the  former  of  which  flows  into  the 
Gila.1 

Several  acequias,  or  canals  for  irrigation  also  bear  witness 
to  the  industry  of  the  inhabitants."  Father  Mange  speaks 
of  one  near  the  Casa  Grande,  intended  to  receive  the  waters 
of  the  Gila.  This  canal  was  twenty-seven  feet  wide  by  ten 
deep  and  was  three  leagues  long.  These  figures,  we  must 
add,  appear  exaggerated  to  later  travellers,  though  they 
mention  another  canal  in  the  Salado  valley  which  must  have 
been  nearly  as  wide,  and  was  four  or  five  feet  deep.  The 
Cliff  Dwellers  then  did  not  shrink  from  such  undertakings, 
any  more  than  did  the  Mound  Builders,  when  they  were 

1  Bancroft,  vol.  IV.,  pp.  632  and  635. 

"  Whipple,  Ewbank,  and  Turner :  "  Report  upon  the  Indian  Tribes." 


THE    CLIFF  DWELLERS.  22$ 

helpful  to  their  commerce  or  their  agriculture.  They  illus- 
trate perhaps  better  then  their  buildings  to  what  a  degree 
of  culture  these  people  had  attained. 

We  must  now  compare  with  the  Casa  Grande  of  the  Rio 
Gila  some  other  yet  more  extensive  ruins,  resembling  them 
in  every  respect,  situated  in  Chihuahua.  These  buildings, 
to  which  the  Spaniards  have  given  the  same  name  of  Casas 
Grandes,  deserve  mention  here,  as  they  are  evidently  the 
work  of  the  same  race  and  date  from  the  same  epoch  as 
those  of  Arizona. 

These  Casas  Grandes  are  situated  in  the  San  Miguel  val- 
ley, not  far  from  the  present  boundary  between  the  United 
States  and  Mexico.  The  country  is  occupied  by  the 
Apaches,  who  make  all  exploration  dangerous.1 

Masses  of  rubbish  in  the  midst  of  which  rise  parts  of  walls 
some  of  them  fifty  feet  high,  indicate  the  old  site  of  the 
town.  The  walls  were  built  of  adobes.  These  adobes  were 
of  very  irregular  length  and  twenty-two  inches  thick,  while 
the  walls  themselves  were  nearly  five  feet  wide  and  simply 
coated  with  clay  moistened  with  water.  The  chief  building 
was  800  feet  long  on  the  fronts  facing  north  and  south, 
but  only  250  on  those  to  the  east  and  west.  The  "  Album 
Mexicano  "  says  1380  feet  by  414,  and  Bartlett,  from  whom 
we  quote  our  figures,  probably  did  not  include  detached 
buildings  in  the  sum  total.  In  1851  when  Bartlett  visited 
them  there  were  neither  stones  nor  beams  to  be  seen,  and  the 
state  of  dilapidation  was  such  that  neither  the  marks  of  a 
floor  nor  of  a  staircase  could  be  made  out ;  nor  could  he  tell 
the  number  or  height  of  the  stories.  Other  less  conscien- 
tious explorers  assert  that  the  principal  buildings  were  three 
stories  high  and  surmounted  by  a  terrace. 

He  had  the  same  difficulties  to  contend  with  in  examining 
the  internal  arrangements  ;  but  in  one  place  he  made  out 

1  Arleguy:  "  Chron.  de  la  Prov.  de  S.  Francisco  de  Zacatecas,"  Mexico,  1737, 
p.  104.  Clavigero :  "St.  Ant.  del  Messico,"  vol.  I.,  p.  159.  Escudero  : 
"  Noticias  del  Estado  de  Chihuahua,"  p.  234.  "Album  Mexicano,"  Mexico, 
1849,  vol.  I.,  p.  374.  Bartlett,  "  Personal  Narrative,"  New  York,  1834,  vol. 
II.,  p.  347. 


226  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

six  chambers  twenty  feet  by  six  in  extent,  and  this  restricted 
space,  was  still  further  curtailed  by  a  little  niche  three  to 
four  feet  high  at  the  end  of  each  chamber,  the  use  of  which 
is  unknown. 

A  short  distance  off,  other  buildings  surround  a  square 
court.  Here  too  we  find  the  little  cells  which  are  one  of 
the  characteristic  features  of  the  Casas  Grandes  as  of  the 
cliff-houses  and  the  pueblos.  This  is  an  important  indi- 
cation of  similar  habits,  and  of  the  similar  origin  of  the 
builders. 

There  are  more  than  2000  mounds  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  Casas  Grandes,  and  it  is  probable  that  they  were  burial- 
places.  Excavations  have  not,  however,  produced  a  single 
human  bone.  All  that  has  been  picked  up  are  a  few  stone 
axes,  clumsy  earthenware  statuettes  and  fragments  of  pot- 
tery, decorated  with  red,  black,  or  brown  ornaments  on  a 
generally  white  ground. 

A  few  miles  farther  off  rises  a  regular  fortress,  not  built  of 
adobes,  but  of  well-dressed  stones  put  together  without 
mortar  of  any  kind.  The  walls  are  from  ten  to  twenty  feet 
thick,  and  the  summit  is  reached  by  a  path  cut  in  the  rock. 
There  is  nothing  to  show  whether  this  fortress  was  erected 
to  defend  the  Casas  Grandes,  or  even  if  it  existed  when  that 
little  town  flourished. 

Important  ruins  are  to  be  seen  on  either  side  of  the  Col- 
orado Chiquito,  one  of  the  upper  branches  of  the  Colorado. 
They  date  from  different  epochs,  and  on  foundations  of  un- 
wrought  stone  we  find,  as  in  Arizona,  walls  made  of  adobes 
or  of  wood.  Numerous  fragments  of  fine  light  pottery,  sel- 
dom painted,  bits  of  obsidian  and  of  rocks  mostly  foreign  to 
the  locality,  also  witness  to  the  presence  of  man.1 

Among  the  ruins  is  one  building  measuring  120  feet  by 
360,  situated  on  an  isolated  eminence.  The  walls  have  all 
but  crumbled  away,  but  we  can  still  see  that  they  were 

1  Sitgreaves,  "  Report  of  an  Expedition  down  the  Zuniand  Colorado  Rivers," 
p.  8,  Washington,  1853.  Whipple,  "  Report  and  Explorations  near  the  3$th 
Parallel."  B.  Mblhausen,  "  Tagebuch  einer  reise  vom  Mississippi  nach  dem 
kusten  der  Sud  See,"  Leipzig,  1858. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS. 

twelve  feet  thick.  Inside  we  find  the  same  little  cells  we 
have  so  often  described.  We  must  also  mention  a  fort,  if 
we  may  so  call  it,  which  rises  from  the  western  bank  of 
Beaver  Creek.1 

The  river  flows  between  deep  cafions,  presenting  a  deso- 
late aspect.  Toward  the  middle  of  a  cliff  with  perpendicular 
walls  and  no  means  of  access,  at  a  height  of  a  hundred  feet, 
rises  a  square  tower  of  admirably  dressed  stone,  which  may 
have  been  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  feet  high.  Each  story 
rising  behind  the  one  below  contains  but  a  single  room,  the 
dimensions  of  which  vary  from  four  to  eight  feet  square  by 
a  height  of  three  to  five  feet.  The  floors  are  of  beams 
roughly  squared,  and  the  openings  are  few  and  very  narrow. 
It  is  extremely  difficult  to  penetrate  this  tower.  Through- 
out the  valley,  as  far  as  Montezuma  Wells,  rise  similar 
towers,  which  have  been  justly  compared  by  a  traveller  to 
swallows'  nests.  It  must  have  required  unheard  of  labor  to 
transport  and  work  the  stones  under  such  conditions.  We 
ask  ourselves  what  manner  of  men  were  the  builders  and 
what  can  have  been  their  aim  ;  but  we  are  unable  to  answer 
these  constantly  repeated  questions. 

But  we  have  not  yet  exhausted  the  surprises  which  await 
us  in  these  regions  ;  that  is,  if  we  can  accept  with  full  con- 
fidence the  account  of  Captain  Walker,  who  speaks  of  having 
discovered  in  1850,  on  the  banks  of  the  Colorado  Chiquito,  a 
regular  citadel,  situated  in  the  centre  of  a  town,  the  ruins  of 
which  extend  for  more  than  a  mile,  and  of  which  the  streets 
running  at  right  angles  with  each  other  are  still  recognizable.2 
"  A  storm  of  fire,"  he  says,  "  had  passed  over  the  town  ;  the 
stones  are  calcined  by  the  flames  ;  the  very  rock  from  which 
the  chief  building  rises  bears  traces  of  fusion  ;  every  thing 
testifies  to  the  intensity  of  the  heat." 

Before  entirely  rejecting  an  account  which  no  one  has  yet 
confirmed  we  must  remember  that  more  important  traces 

1  Dr.  Hoffman  :  "  Ethn.  Obs.  on  Indians  Inhabiting  Nevada,  California,  and 
Arizona,"  U.  S.  Geol.  and  Geog.  Survey,  1876. 

1  San  Francisco  Herald,  quoted  by  Bancroft,  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  IV., 
p.  647. 


228  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

exist  in  Missouri,  on  the  Gasconade  River,  not  far  from  St. 
Louis,  of  an  ancient  town  with  regular  squares,  roads  cross- 
ing each  other  at  right  angles,  and  houses  of  unwrought 
stone  without  any  traces  of  mortar.  We  may  also  mention 
similar  ruins  at  Buffalo  Creek  and  on  the  Osage  River.1 

Some  time  ago  Major  Powell  ascended  for  some  hundreds 
of  miles  the  Great  Colorado,  still  so  little  known.  He  tells 
of  having  noticed  in  dreary  and  deserted  regions  traces  of  a 
population  now  completely  passed  away.  Everywhere  in 
the  valleys  are  pueblos,  and  cliff-houses  are  seen  at  every 
turn  in  the  wild  and  picturesque  canons,  among  rocks  about 
4,800  feet  high,  and  where  the  cliffs  sometimes  lean 
so  closely  together  that  one  is  tempted  to  believe  that  the 
river  sinks  into  a  subterranean  passage  like  the  tunnels  of  a 
railway.  Round  about  these  abandoned  habitations  the 
travellers  found  fragments  of  pottery,  arrow-points,  and  chips 
of  quartz,  similar  to  those  which  have  been  picked  up  every- 
where in  Central  America. 

We  have  described  numerous  buildings  situated  in  the 
valleys  at  the  foot  of  the  rocks  on  which  the  cliff-houses 
were  built,  all  the  approaches  to  which  were  defended  by 
watch-towers  or  other  posts  of  observation.  Every  thing 
tells  of  constant  reprisals,  of  incessant  peril,  and  formidable 
enemies.  But  there  are  yet  other  more  considerable  ruins, 
of  more  imposing  appearance  as  a  whole,  the  former  in- 
habitants of  which  do  not  appear  to  have  been  exposed 
to  the  same  dangers. 

These  formed  peaceable  communities,  exclusively  agricul- 
tural, in  which  communism  under  the  authority  of  a  despotic 
chief  appears  to  have  been  the  prevalent  system.  Gregg, 
who  crossed  New  Mexico  about  1840,  was  the  first  to 
describe  them,2  and  he  tells  us  that  the  ruins  of  the  Pueblo 
Bonito  in  the  Navajo  country,  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains 
included  houses  built  of  slabs  of  sandstone,  a  mode  of  con- 

'Conant :  "  Foot-prints  of  Vanished  Races,"  p.  71. 

a"  Commerce  des  Prairies,"  vol.  I.,  p.  284,  New  York,  1844.  The  pueblo 
of  which  Gregg  speaks  under  the  name  of  the  Bonito  Pueblo  is  probably  the 
Pintado  Pueblo. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS. 


229 


struction  quite  unknown  in  the  country  at  present.  These 
houses  are  still  intact,  though  their  antiquity  is  such  that  we 
are  absolutely  ignorant  of  their  origin. 

In  1849,  Colonel  Washington,  Governor  of  New  Mexico, 
organized  an  expedition  against  the  Navajos,  who  infested 
the  northern  part  of  the  territory,  and  it  is  to  Lieutenant, 
afterward  General,  Simpson,  attached  to  the  topographical 




r-ir- irnr— 11 — irni — ^n 


ff 

m 

or 

UD 
DD 
ID 
DQ 


FIG.  102. — Ground  plan  of  the  Pueblo  Bonito  in  the  Chaco  Cafion. 

department  of  the  army,  that  we  owe  the  first  regular  plans 
of  the  ruins  met  with  by  the  soldiers  at  every  turn  in  cross- 
ing the  Chaco  Cafion.1 

The  Bonito  Pueblo  is  the  most  important  of  these  villages 
(fig.  102).  It  will  be  well  to  describe  it  with  some  detail,1  to 
be  able  to  compare  it  with  other  pueblos  closely  resembling 

'"  Report,  Secretary  of  War,"  Thirty-first  Congress,  First  Session. 
*  Ruins  of  Chaco  Cafion  examined  in  1877.      Jackson,  /.  c.,  432,  440,  ti 
pi.  LVIII. 


230  PREHISTORIC  AMERICA. 

it  in  their  chief  arrangements.  We  must  add,  however,  that 
most  of  them  are  of  rectangular  plan,  and  that  they  present 
a  unity  of  design  that  we  do  not  find  to  the  same  extent  in 
the  Bonito  Pueblo. 

This  pueblo,  built  doubtless  by  degrees  as  the  necessities 
of  the  moment  dictated,  rises  below  the  perpendicular  rocks 
which  limit  the  Chaco  Caflon,  and  forms  an  irregular  half  of 
an  ellipse  measuring  five  hundred  and  forty-four  feet  by 
four  hundred  and  fourteen.  An  inside  court  is  divided  into 
two  almost  equal  portions  by  a  row  of  four  estufas. 

Two  wings  are  placed  perpendicularly  to  the  principal 
building.  The  left  wing  is  divided  into  three  rows  of 
parallel  rooms,  measuring  from  twelve  to  twenty  feet  long 
by  from  twelve  to  fifteen  wide,  larger  than  those  of  the  cliff- 
houses.  The  outer  walls  are  in  ruins,  but  the  division  walls 
in  pretty  good  preservation  still  reach  up  to  the  second 
story.  This  wing  forms  a  quarter  of  a  circle,  and  although 
the  whole  of  this  portion  has  suffered  very  much  we  can  still 
make  out  five  rows  of  cells,  with  nine  cells  to  each  row. 
Lastly  we  must  mention  three  estufas,  half  underground, 
a  little  in  advance  of  the  buildings. 

In  the  right  wing  the  walls  are  better  preserved  ;  they  are 
still  thirty  feet  high,  and  four  different  stories,  one  above 
the  other,  have  been  made  out.1  This  part  of  the  buildings 
appeared  to  the  explorers  to  be  the  most  recent  portion  of 
the  whole  pueblo,  some  of  the  beams  which  supported  the 
floor  are  still  in  their  places,  and  from  them  we  can  judge 
how  the  different  rooms,  the  largest  of  the  pueblo,  were 
arranged. 

The  state  of  decay  of  part  of  the  ruins  is  such  that  it  is 
impossible  to  decide  on  the  exact  number  of  the  rooms.  In 
a  neighboring  pueblo,  that  of  Pintado,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  have  been  counted,  and  every  thing  points  to  the  con- 
clusion that  there  were  even  more  in  the  Pueblo  Bonito. 

1  There  are  also  several  stories  in  the  neighboring  pueblos.  The  Pueblo 
Pintado  has  four  ;  the  second,  ten  feet  high  ;  the  third,  seven.  The  Pueblo  of 
the  Arroyo  has  three  stories,  and  many  others  might  be  quoted. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS. 


231 


Neither  the  inner  nor  the  outer  walls  show  any  trace  of 
stairs,  so  that  it  is  probable  the  inhabitants  went  from  one 
story  to  another  by  means  of  ladders — a  mode  of  access  still 
obtaining  in  the  pueblos  now  inhabited.  The  windows  are 
extremely  small,  and  their  lintels  consist  of  pieces  of  cedar 
or  pine  wood  scarcely  squared  and  merely  laid  side  by  side. 
The  floors  must  have  been  of  wood,  but  most  of  them  were 
used  by  Colonel  Washington's  soldiers  to  feed  their  camp- 
fires. 

The  walls  of  the  eastern  side  are  pretty  well  preserved, 
and  rise  to  the  height  of  the  second  story.  On  this  side  are 
the  two  largest  estufas  of  the  pueblo,  their  diameter  exceed- 


FIG.    103. — Different  kinds  of   masonry  used  in   the  buildings  of  the  Chaco 

Valley. 

ing  fifty  feet.  They  were  situated  in  the  tentre  of  a  court, 
and  covered  by  a  mass  of  masonry,  forming  a  rectangle  of 
one  hundred  and  fifteen  feet  by  sixty-five.  Farther  on, 
masses  of  rubbish  mark  the  site  of  buildings,  the  use  of 
which  cannot  be  made  out,  connecting  the  large  estufas  with 
two  small  ones,  which  touched  the  chief  buildings.  In  the 
court  itself,  a  series  of  excavations,  filled  with  rubbish  of  all 
kinds,  suggests  a  set  of  subterranean  passages,  and  it 
is  to  be  regretted  that  this  interesting  point  has  not  been 
verified. 

The  masonry,  generally  remarkable  for  the  care  and  pre- 
cision with  which  it  is  executed,  contrasts  strangely  with 
that  now  to  be  seen  amongst  the  sedentary  Indians.  The 


232  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

people  of  the  pueblos  always  selected  the  largest  stones  to 
frame  the  openings,  and  they  placed  them  exactly  at  right 
angles.  In  the  very  diverse  buildings  which  make  up  the 
Pueblo  Bonito,  this  masonry  presents  remarkable  differ- 
ences (fig.  103) ;  it  does  not  all  seem  to  date  from  the  same 
period,  and  it  may  be  that  parts  have  been  restored  at  more 
recent  epochs  than  that  of  the  original  buildings.  In  many 
parts  the  walls  are  strengthened  with  round  pieces  of  wood, 
three  to  four  inches  in  diameter,  set  upright ;  and,  by  others, 
ten  to  fifteen  feet  long  by  six  to  eight  inches  in  diame- 
ter, arranged  horizontally.  We  find  a  similar  plan  adopted 
in  the  islands  of  Greece,1  subject,  as  they  are,  to  disas- 
trous earthquakes,  and  the  same  causes  may  have  led  the 
inhabitants  of  New  Mexico  to  take  the  same  precautions. 
Let  us  not  weary  of  calling  attention  to  the  similitude  in 
the  intellect  of  man  and  the  identity  in  his  ideas  all  over 
the  surface  of  the  globe.  For,  truly,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
curious  points  of  the  study  in  which  we  are  engaged. 

We  must  also  note  the  great  number  of  estufas  which 
everywhere  rise  amidst  the  ruins  under  notice.  Jackson  has 
counted  twenty-one  of  them.  They  are  generally  remark- 
able for  their  size  and  the  solidity  of  their  construction. 
Nearly  all  of  them  were  on  a  level  with  the  soil,  and  their 
height  was  greater  than  that  of  the  other  buildings.  There 
were  no  lateral  openings  to  be  seen,  and  it  is  probable  that, 
as  in  the  Pintado  Pueblo,  the  entrance  was  from  a  hole  in 
the  roof.  Most  of  these  estufas  are  completely  in  ruins,  and 
their  site  alone  is  marked  by  a  pile  of  earth  and  stones. 
Those  few  still  standing  prove  the  intelligence  of  the 
architects  and  the  skill  of  the  workmen.  In  some  pueblos 
the  estufas  are  strengthened  with  buttresses ;  in  the 
Hungo-Pavie  Pueblo,  for  instance,  the  estufa  is  flanked 
by  six  buttresses,  forming  regular  pillars ;  and,  in  the 
Pueblo  Pintado,  there  are  four  very  similar  ones.  Instan- 
ces of  this  peculiarity  might  be  multiplied. 

Every  discovery  confirms  the  importance  of  these  estufas. 

1  "  Les  premiers  Hommes  et  les  Temps  pre'-historiques,"  vol.  I.,  p.  414. 


THE   CLIFF  DIVELLERS.  233 

We  have  noticed  them  in  the  cliff-houses,  we  find  them  again 
in  the  pueblos,  and  to  this  day  they  are  to  be  seen  amongst 
the  Moqui  Indians,  where  they  consist  of  square  rooms  used 
as  workshops  for  weaving.  The  Moquis,  both  male  and  fe- 
male, assemble  in  them  to  avoid  the  great  heat  of  the  day, 
or,  according  to  more  credible  accounts,  to  practise  their 
mysterious  rites.  This  constant  presence  of  the  estufa  is 
another  point  of  comparison  which  must  not  be  forgotten. 

In  the  course  of  his  researches  Jackson  discovered  outside 
the  enclosure  of  the  pueblos,  on  the  east,  some  little  struc- 
tures raised  on  a  bank  of  stones  forming  the  lower  stratum 
of  the  rock.  The  calcareous  bed  had  indeed  been  length- 
ened by  a  layer  of  masonry,  formed  of  large  and  small  stones 
arranged  alternately.  Yet  farther  off  was  another  more  im- 
portant mass  of  ruins  covering  an  area  of  163  feet  by  73,  and 
including  two  estufas.  All  appearances  pointed  to  the  con- 
clusion that  these  ruins  were  connected  with  the  Bonito 
Pueblo. 

Time  doubtless  failed  the  explorers  for  the  excavation  of 
the  two  heaps  of  cinders  on  the  south  of  the  pueblo ;  but  it 
is  very  certain  that  these  middens  would  have  yielded  many 
objects  which  would  have  made  us  better  acquainted  with 
the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  pueblo. 

Amongst  the  other  pueblos  discovered  we  must  mention 
that  of  Una  Vida,  the  estufa  of  which  is  the  largest  hitherto 
found,  its  diameter  exceeding  sixty  feet ;  the  Pintado  Pueblo, 
already  referred  to  more  than  once;  the  Weje-Gi  Pueblo; 
the  Peflasca-Blanca  Pueblo,  of  elliptical  form,  with  an  in- 
ternal court  measuring  364  feet  by  269,  the  largest  of  any 
after  the  Bonito  Pueblo,  the  buildings  covering  altogether 
an  area  of  499  feet  by  363  ;  and  the  Arroyo  Pueblo,  in  which 
three  stories  can  be  made  out,  with  floors  of  interlaced  wil- 
low branches  covered  with  beaten  earth.  Near  these  large 
pueblos  were  several  other  very  small  ones.  That  marked  9 
in  the  plans  drawn  by  Jackson  is  only  seventy-eight  feet  by 
sixty-three  ;  yet  it  has  two  estufas  and  some  twenty  rooms. 
A  detailed  description  of  these  pueblos  would  involve  us  in 


234  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

constant  repetition.  Everywhere  we  meet  with  the  same 
class  of  structures  with  their  remarkable  regularity,  their 
walls  of  stones  or  adobes,  and  their  estufas  overlooking  the 
rest  of  the  buildings.  We  must  add,  however,  that  the 
Pueblo  Alto,  which  can  scarcely  be  seen  from  the  valley,  is 
situated,  like  the  cliff-houses,  at  the  top  of  a  hill  of  consider- 
able height.  It  is  reached  by  a  flight  of  twenty-eight  steps 
roughly  cut  in  the  rock,  and  on  either  side  holes  can  be  made 
out,  in  which  the  hands  could  be  placed  to  facilitate  the 
ascent.  Arrived  at  the  Mesa  we  find  ourselves  opposite  a 
building  forming  a  parallelogram,  presenting  every  appear- 
ance of  great  antiquity,  and  probably  much  older  than  any 
of  the  structures  in  the  valley.  Close  by  we  see  a  huge  heap 
of  rubbish  of  all  kinds,  chiefly  fragments  of  pottery.  This 
heap  has  been  measured  by  American  engineers,  who  esti- 
mate its  contents  at  25,000  cubic  feet.  We  can  but  repeat 
our  regrets  that  the  explorers  could  not  undertake  any  ex- 
cavations, which  would  doubtless  have  aided  in  the  elucida- 
tion of  the  problems  we  have  stated. 

The  traveller  is  well  rewarded  for  the  fatigue  of  the  ascent 
of  the  Pueblo  Alto.  Beneath  his  feet  he  sees  the  ruins 
rising  from  every  part  of  the  Chaco  Cafton,  while  beyond 
stretches  a  vast  panorama  ;  on  the  north  the  basin  of  the 
San  Juan  and  the  La  Plata  chain  ;  on  the  east  the  Sierra 
Tunecha ;  on  the  south  the  snowy  crest  of  the  Sierra  San 
Mateo  ;  on  the  west  the  Jemez  Mountains,  overlooked  by  the 
Pelado  with  its  eternal  snows.  All  else  is  changed,  nature 
alone  has  remained  immovable,  and  the  man  of  the  igth 
century  enjoys  the  same  view,  alike  imposing  and  attractive, 
which  must  have  charmed  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the 
pueblo. 

At  the  Chettro-Kettle  Pueblo,  General  Simpson,  during 
his  first  exploration,  was  able  to  examine  a  chamber  still  in 
a  remarkable  state  of  preservation.1  We  cannot  do  better 
than  quote  the  description  he  gives,  which  proves  that  the 

1  "Journal  of  Lieutenant  James  A.  Simpson  in  the  Report  of  the  Secretary 
of  War"  ;  3ist.  Congress,  ist  Session.  (Senate)  Ex.  Doc.  No.  64,  pp.  79,  80. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  235 

men  of  old,  buried  though  they  were  in  regions  so  difficult 
of  approach,  knew  how  to  build  their  home  with  as  much 
art  as  the  people  whom  we  have  been  in  the  habit  of  look- 
ing upon  as  the  initiators  of  civilization. 

"  This  room,"  says  General  Simpson,  "  is  fourteen  feet 
wide  by  seventeen  and  a  half  feet  long,  and  ten  feet  in 
elevation.  It  has  an  outside  door-way  three  and  a  half 
feet  high  by  two  and  a  quarter  wide,  and  one  at  its  west 
end,  leading  into  the  adjoining  room,  two  feet  wide,  and 
at  present,  on  account  of  rubbish,  only  two  and  a  half 
feet  high.  The  stone  walls  still  have  their  plaster  upon 
them,  in  a  tolerable  state  of  preservation.  On  the  south 
wall  is  a  recess  or  niche  three  feet  two  inches  high  by  four 
feet  five  inches  wide  and  four  feet  deep.  Its  position  and 
size  naturally  suggested  the  idea  that  it  might  have  been  a 
fireplace  ;  but  if  so,  the  smoke  must  have  returned  to  the 
room,  as  there  was  no  chimney  outlet  for  it.  In  addition  to 
this  large  recess,  there  were  three  smaller  ones  in  the  same 
wall.  The  ceiling  showed  two  main  beams,  laid  trans- 
versely ;  on  these  longitudinally  were  a  number  of  smaller 
ones  in  juxtaposition  ;  the  ends  being  tied  together  by  a 
species  of  wooden  fibre,  and  the  interstices  chinked  in  with 
small  stones.  On  these  again  transversely,  in  close  contact, 
was  a  kind  of  lathing  of  the  odor  and  appearance  of  cedar, 
all  in  a  good  state  of  preservation."  Jackson,  who  visited 
these  ruins  twenty-eight  years  later  than  General  Simpson, 
did  not  find  this  room  north-west  of  the  main  building,1  but 
he  mentions  others  no  less  curious,  which  were  reached  by 
holes  made  in  the  masonry,  the  first  story  alone  having  a 
series  of  little  windows.  The  walls  of  the  Chettro-Kettle 
Pueblo  measured  935  feet  long  by  forty  high,  and  contained 
315,000  cubic  feet  of  masonry.  When  we  remember  that 
each  stone  making  up  this  sum  total  had  to  be  hewn  from 
the  quarry,  carried  a  considerable  distance,  dressed  and  set 
in  its  place  ;  further  that  the  posts  had  to  be  brought  from 
a  long  way  off  and  the  openings  to  be  made,  it  is  difficult 

1  "  Ruins  of  S.  W.  Colorado  in  1875  and  1877,"  p.  439. 


236  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

to  avoid  concluding  that  a  great  number  of  workmen,  di- 
rected by  skilful  architects,  must  have  been  employed  on 
this  building,  which  at  least  in  the  art  of  masonry,  marks  an 
advanced  stage  of  culture. 

The  same  remarks  apply  with  equal  force  to  a  pueblo  on 
the  banks  of  the  Las  Animas  River,  which  flows  into  the 
San  Juan  about  sixty  miles  from  the  Chaco  Cafton.  This 
pueblo  has  been  visited  by  the  Hon.  L.  H.  Morgan,  and  de- 
scribed by  him  with  scrupulous  fidelity.1  The  chief  build- 
ing, 368  feet,  and  its  two  wings,  270  feet  long,  are  higher  than 
any  others  yet  discovered.  They  contained  five,  perhaps 
even  six,  stories,  and  seventy  rooms  or  cells  on  each  story. 
The  walls,  never  less  than  two  feet,  are  here  and  there  three 
feet  six  inches  thick.  Some  of  the  rooms  communicate 
with  each  other  by  trap-doors ;  others  have  two  doors  and 
four  lateral  openings,  small  enough,  it  is  true,  but  at  least 
admitting  air  and  light,  luxuries  nearly  unknown  amongst 
these  people.  There  too  we  find  estufas  ;  there  are  two  in 
the  principal  structure,  a  third  in  a  building  annexed  to  it, 
and  a  fourth,  sixty-three  feet  and  a  half  in  diameter,  rises 
in  the  centre  of  the  court. 

There  are  other  pueblos,  nearly  as  large,  in  the  valley  of 
Las  Animas,  but  Morgan  estimates  its  population  at  only 
five  thousand  at  a  time  when  all  the  pueblos  were  inhabited. 

At  the  other  end  of  New  Mexico  there  are  ruins  no  less  re- 
markable,8 and  there  is  so  great  a  resemblance  between  them 
and  those  we  have  been  describing  that  it  is  impossible  not 
to  attribute  them  to  the  same  races  and  the  same  period. 
These  pueblos  are  scattered  over  the  whole  of  that  part  of 
the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  bounded  on  the  north  by  the 
Rio  de  las  Frijoles,  on  the  south  by  the  San  Domingo,  on 
the  east  by  the  plateau  stretching  away  to  Santa  Fe". 

We  choose  from  among  these  ruins  those  in  the  valley  of 
the  Rio  Pecos,  a  little  river  flowing  into  the  Rio  Grande,  in 

1  "  On  the  Ruins  of  a  Stone  Pueblo  on  the  Animas  River  in  New  Mex- 
ico." Am.  Assoc.  St.Louis,  1877.  "Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  II.,  p.536. 

*  A.  F.  Bandelier :  "  Report  on  the  Ruins  of  the  Pueblo  of  Pecos."  Arch.  In- 
stitute of  America,"  Boston,  1881. 


THE    CLIFF  DWELLERS.  237 

the  neighborhood  of  which  are  found  rich  placetas,  as  the 
Spanish  called  mines  containing  precious  metals,  and  cerillos, 
in  which  blue  and  green  turquoises  are  still  found.  Bande- 
lier  has  recently  visited  the  Rio  Pecos  valley,  which  is  from 
twenty  to  twenty-five  miles  long  by  six  to  eight  wide,  and  is 
situated  at  a  height  of  six  thousand  three  hundred  and  forty- 
six  feet.1  We  cannot  do  better  than  follow  his  description 
of  the  chief  buildings,  supplementing  it,  however,  from  other 
sources,  and  will  retain  the  initials  A  and  B,  by  which  he 
designates  two  groups,  the  name  and  history  of  which  are 
both  completely  unknown. 

The  Pueblo  B  rises  on  a  mesa  overlooking  the  Rio  Pecos. 
Its  foundations  rest  on  siliceous  rock,  and  the  arrangements 
of  the  building  vary  according  to  the  sinuosities  or  asperities 
of  the  site,  so  that  they  are  far  from  presenting  that  regu- 
larity which  strikes  us  so  forcibly  in  the  pueblos  of  the  Chaco 
or  of  the  MacElmo.  The  building  is  four  hundred  and 
forty  feet  long  by  sixty-three  at  its  widest  portion.  It  has 
no  lateral  wings,  no  internal  court,  and  for  the  first  time  we 
find  no  estufa.  As  many  as  five  hundred  and  seven  cells 
have  been  counted,  separated  by  very  thin  division  walls. 
The  largest  measure  nine  feet  by  sixteen,  the  smallest  seven 
feet  by  nine.  Bandelier  estimates  their  height  at  seven  feet 
and  a  half,  and  if  his  calculation  be  correct  the  total  height 
of  the  building  would  be  thirty-six  feet.  How  could  such  a 
tiny  place  be  the  home  of  a  human  being?2 

Very  different  layers  can  be  made  out  in  the  masonry ; 
some  are  of  gray  or  red  schistous  sandstone,  others  of  a 
conglomerate  formed  of  a  quantity  of  stones  varying  in  size 
from  that  of  a  pea  to  that  of  a  nut.  One  part  only,  consid- 
ered the  most  recent,  is  of  adobes  of  considerable  size,  measur- 
ing eleven  inches  by  six.  The  inside  surface  of  the  masonry 

'Emory:  "Notes  of  a  Military  Reconnoisance  from  Fort  Leavenworth 
in  Kansas  to  San  Diego  in  California."  Washington,  1848. 

*Castaneda  de  Nagera  :  "Relation  du  Voy.  de  Cibola."  Juan  Jaravillo  : 
"  App.  VI.,  Ternaux  Compans,"  series  I.,  vol.  IX.  G.  Castaflo  de  la  Cosa : 
"  Memoria  del  Descubrimiento  que  — hizo  en  el  Nuevo  Mexico,"  Mexico, 
1590  ;  Doc.  ined.  de  los  Archives  de  Indias,  vol.  XV.,  p.  244. 


238  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

is  covered  with  a  very  carefully  spread  white  coating,  the 
constituents  of  which  could  not  be  determined,  and  the  walls 
are  strengthened  with'  posts  of  cedar  or  pine  wood  imbedded 
in  the  masonry  in  their  natural  state,  only  the  bark  having 
been  removed.  Other  posts  served  as  supports  to  the  floor, 
consisting  of  brushwood,  chips  of  wood,  and  a  thick  coating 
of  moistened  clay,  this  arrangement  being  the  same  as  that 
described  above.  No  trace  has  been  found  of  side-doors  or 
staircases  ;  the  different  stories,  which  are  placed  one  behind 
the  other,  were  reached  by  trap-doors.  Castafieda,  speaking 
of  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  expeditions  of  the  Spanish,  that 
of  .1540,  in  which  he  took  part,  relates  that  the  roof  of  the 
houses  formed  terraces,  by  which  the  inhabitants  passed 
from  one  to  the  other.  Such  doubtless  had  also  been  their 
mode  of  communication.  We  may  add  that  it  is  the  plan 
still  in  use  amongst  the  Indians  of  Zufti,  Moqui,  Acoma,  and 
Taos  ;  no  change  has  taken  place  in  these  secular  customs. 

In  one  of  the  rooms  some  cinders  and  fragments  of  char- 
coal have  been  picked  up,  sole  traces  of  the  domestic  hearth. 
It  was  impossible  to  ascertain  what  method  was  employed 
to  ensure  the  escape  of  the  smoke,  but  this  was  probably 
because  of  the  state  of  dilapidation  in  which  the  building 
was  found,  as  General  Simpson  describes  a  hole  for  the 
escape  of  the  smoke  exactly  above  the  hearth  in  the  San 
Domingo  Pueblo. 

Pueblo  A.  is  situated  on  the  north  of  Pueblo  B.  It  in- 
cludes several  buildings  surrounding  a  court.  The  height  of 
these  buildings  must  have  varied  very  much ;  that  on  the 
east  was  five,  that  on  the  north  two,  and  that  on  the  south  four 
stories  high.1  Bandelier  gives  the  size  of  the  court  as  two 
hundred  and  ten  feet  by  sixty-three.  The  perimeter  of  the 
whole  is  one  thousand  one  hundred  and  ninety  feet,  and  as 
many  as  five  hundred  and  eighty-five  rooms  have  been 
counted.  This  pueblo  is  the  largest  hitherto  discovered. 
Its  construction  differs  in  no  respect  from  that  of  those 
already  described  ;  no  staircase,  window,  or  hearth  is  to  be 

1  Bandelier,  /.  (.,  p.  78. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS. 

seen,  and  three  little  estufas  recall  the  usual  customs  of  the 
people  under  notice.  Mr.  E.  Lee  Childe,  in  a  recent  publica- 
tion (Correspondent,  roth  Nov.,  1881),  describes  an  Indian 
village  of  New  Mexico  which  he  had  just  visited.  "Before 
us,'.'  he  says,  "  on  the  right  and  the  left,  are  two  rows  of  these 
adobe  habitations,  low,  with  no  openings  outward,  no  doors, 
no  staircases.  The  flat  terraced  roofs  are  reached  by  a  mov- 
able outside  ladder.  All  the  windows  and  doors  open  on  to 
an  inside  court,  which  can  only  be  reached  by  going  down 
another  ladder.  Each  house  is  thus  a  kind  of  little  fort,  into 
which,  the  ladder  once  withdrawn,  neither  man  nor  beast 
can  penetrate.  This  tribe  forms  part  of  the  Pueblo  Indians, 
who  have  adopted  agricultural  customs,  cultivating  the 
ground  and  breeding  cattle."  Does  not  this  read  like  a 
description  of  the  ancient  dwellings  we  are  endeavoring  to 
make  known  ? 

Round  about  the  pueblos  and  inside  the  different  cells 
have  been  picked  up  innumerable  fragments  of  pottery, 
arrow-points,  chips  of  obsidian,  black  lava,  agates,  jasper, 
quartz,  stone  axes  and  hammers,  and  copper  rings.  Among 
these  objects  we  must  mention  especially  two  little  earthen- 
ware figures,  very  like  the  idols  of  the  Mexicans.  Thus  far 
this  is  the  only  fact  that  throws  any  light  on  the  religion  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  pueblos.1 

This  habitation  in  common,  these  cells  all  exactly  resem- 
bling one  another,  with  the  absence  of  any  larger  residence, 
point  to  the  conclusion  that  the  men  of  the  pueblos  led  a 
communal  existence."  "  The  next  morning,"  says  a  recent 

1  The  researches  of  Mr.  Frank  Gushing  at  the  Zufii  Pueblo  will  doubtless 
throw  a  flood  of  light  on  the  whole  subject.  The  few  preliminary  words  which 
have  appeared  in  the  Century  Magazine  and  elsewhere  promise  the  most  inter- 
esting results.  Mr.  Gushing  is  now  (1884)  about  to  prepare  his  final  report. 
Ant.  de  Espejo  :  "  El  Viaje  que  hizo  en  el  anno  de  ochenta  y  tres."  Hakluyt, 
"  Voyages,"  vol.  III.  If  we  accept  Coronado's  account  Pecos  was  already  in 
ruins  in  1540.  Later,  under  the  direction  of  the  Franciscans,  the  pueblo  was  re- 
built, a  church  and  convent  erected,  and  in  1680  the  population  exceeded  2,000. 
Vetancurt ;  "  Cronica,"  p.  300.  Bandelier,  /.  c.,  p.  120  et  seq. 

*  Bandelier,  /.  c.,  pp.  54,  60,  89,  et  seq.  Force,  Cong,  des  Am.,  Luxem- 
bourg, 1877,  p.  16. 


240  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

traveller,  "  I  was  waked  at  dawn  by  a  strange  chant.  Hav- 
ing at  once  drawn  aside  the  curtains  of  the  ambulance,  I 
dimly  made  out  the  profile  of  the  chief,  who  was  standing  at 
the  summit  of  the  pueblo.  When  he  had  finished  chanting, 
he  gave  out  a  proclamation.  He  had  scarcely  finished  when 
I  saw  figures  moving  rapidly.  It  was  explained  to  me  that 
the  chant  of  the  chief  was  an  act  of  adoration,  and  the  object 
of  the  proclamation  was  to  make  known  what  was  to  be  the 
task  of  the  different  families  made  up  of  the  five  hundred 
persons  living  in  the  pueblo."  The  present  may  help  us  to 
understand  the  past.  They  were  certainly  an  agricultural 
race,  for  every  sedentary  population  must  be  so  from  mere 
force  of  circumstances.  Moreover,  near  the  Rio  Pecos  culti- 
vated fields  have  been  made  out,  and  irrigative  works  of 
considerable  extent,  including  acequias  or  large  canals,  and 
zanjas  or  irrigating  ditches.  This  was  doubtless  the  Huerta 
del  pueblo,  the  garden  cultivated  by  all  in  common.  In  many 
places  the  outlines  have  been  traced  of  fields  in  which  maize 
was  cultivated,  and  these  fields  are  remarkable  for  the 
luxuriant  growth  of  a  robust  variety  of  sun-flower.  The 
common  property  was  under  the  same  kind  of  government 
as  that  generally  adopted  in  Mexico  before  the  Spanish  Con- 
quest. The  land,  the  property  of  all,  was  divided  every  year 
amongst  the  different  families  forming  the  tribe,  who  were 
probably  very  closely  related  to  each  other.  But  each 
family  had  a  right  to  the  produce  of  the  toil  of  its  members  ; 
they  reaped  the  seed  they  sowed,  they  gathered  the  fruits 
they  planted.  These  assertions  seem  to  be  well  founded ; 
for  according  to  Mariano  Ruiz,  who  lived  for  a  long  time 
amongst  the  Pecos  Indians,  this  mode  of  cultivation  was  till 
recently  practised  by  them  ;  in  fact  it  lasted  until  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  tribe,  and  to  quote  their  own  words:  "  La  tierras 
son  del  pueblo,  pero  cada  uno  piede  vender  sus  cosechas." 

The  Cliff  Dwellers  and  inhabitants  of  the  pueblos  have 
left  behind  them  as  many  fragments  of  pottery  as  the  Mound 
Builders.  Jackson  tells  us  that  all  who  have  visited  these 
regions  have  been  strongly  impressed  by  the  fragments  of 


THE   CUFF  DWELLERS.  241 

pottery  everywhere  strewing  their  path,  and  that  even  in 
parts  where  no  vestige  of  human  habitation  has  been  found. 
The  pottery  was  doubtless  of  a  kind  to  enable  it  to  last 
longer  than  the  adobes,  which  have  crumbled  to  dust.  Ban- 
delier,  again,  in  speaking  of  the  ruins  of  the  Rio  Pecos,  says 
that  wagon-loads  of  painted  pottery  lie  at  the  feet  of  the  tra- 
veller ;  and  Schoolcraft  *  speaks  of  the  profusion  of  fragments 
of  pottery  left  behind  them  by  the  ancient  tribes  who  lived 
on  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Gila,  as  proofs  of  their  long  resi- 
dence there.  Holmes  is  even  more  explicit,  and,  according 
to  him,  the  number  of  these  fragments  is  quite  confusing. 


FIG.  104. — Vases  found  on  the  banks  of  the  San  Juan. 

On  a  surface,  roughly  estimated  at  ten  feet  square,  he  was  able 
to  pick  up  fragments  belonging  to  fifty-five  different  vases, 
jars  or  amphorae,  dishes  or  bottles.  All  explorations  lead 
to  the  same  results,  and  everywhere  the  heaps  of  frag- 
ments of  all  kinds  are  of  much  greater  importance  than  those 
found  at  the  present  day  near  villages  occupied  by  seden- 
tary Indians.  To  explain  this,  recourse  has  been  had  to  a 
strange  supposition.  It  has  been  said  that  the  inhabitants 
of  the  country,  forced  to  flee  before  a  sudden  invasion,  had 
broken  their  crockery  before  leaving  their  hearths  forever — 
either  under  the  influence  of  a  superstitious  horror,  or  to 

1  "Archives  of  Aboriginal  Knowledge,"  vol.  III.,  p.  83. 


242  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

prevent   their    property  becoming  the  booty   of    a   hated 
enemy. 

What  is  more  certain  is,  that  the  pieces  of  pot- 
tery found  on  the  surface  of  the  ground  show  no  signs 
of  deterioration,  although  they  have  been  subjected 
for  centuries  to  all  the  inclemencies  of  the  seasons. 
Generally,  the  earthenware  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers  is  far 
superior  to  that  of  the  Mound  Builders  (fig.  104) ;  it 
was  made  of  a  fine  clay,  very  plentiful  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  homes  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers,  and,  to  give  it  con- 


FlG.  105. — Funeral  urn  found  in  Utah. 

sistency,  this  clay  was  mixed  with  a  small  quantity  of  sand, 
bits  of  shell,  or  even  with  pellets  of  earth  moulded  and 
baked.  Often  after  kneading  his  clay,  the  potter  cut  it  into 
thin  strips,  which  he  laid  one  upon  the  other,  giving  them 
the  form  required  with  his  hand.  This  is  the  mode  still  em- 
ployed in  the  glass-works  of  Europe  in  making  crucibles  and 
other  things  requiring  delicate  workmanship.  We  give  a 
figure  (fig.  105)  of  a  jar,  or  funeral  urn,  found  in  Utah,  near 
a  structure  of  adobes  now  completely  in  ruins.1  This  illus- 
tration will  help  us  to  understand  the  details  of  the  manu- 

1  This  jar  belongs  to  the  Peabody  Museum,  and  is  capable  of  holding  three 
gallons  ;  another,  found  near  Epsom  Creek,  holds  no  less  than  ten  gallons. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  243 

facture.  All  the  pieces  of  pottery  found  had  been  subjected 
to  the  heat  of  fire ;  and,  although  that  heat  had  never  been 
great  enough  to  change  the  original  color  of  the  clay,  the 
baking  had  made  them  so  hard  that,  when  struck,  they  give 
out  a  very  clear  metallic  sound.  Lightness  was  evidently  a 
quality  much  esteemed ;  the  internal  and  external  surfaces 
were  carefully  smoothed  before  baking,  and  the  workman 
often  succeeded  in  making  the  body  of  the  largest  pots  no 
thicker  than  a  quarter  of  an  inch.  A  great  many  of  these 
pots  retain  traces  of  paintings,  and  several  have  been  coated 
with  a  varnish  converted  by  baking  into  a  brilliant  polish, 
worthy  to  be  compared  with  that  of  our  modern  enamelled 
manufactures.  Beneath  some  sepulchral  mounds  near  the 
Great  Salt  Lake  have  been  found  some  pieces  of  pottery,  in- 
ferior in  execution  to  those  of  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  which 
still  retain  this  polish.  These  jars  contained  burnt  human 
bones,  yet  another  proof  of  the  practice  of  cremation  at  cer- 
tain periods  by  certain  races.1 

The  varnish  was  generally  black,  blue,  or  brown,  more 
rarely  red  or  white.  We  do  not  know  what  were  its  constitu- 
ents ;  they  varied  probably  according  to  the  locality.  We 
know  for  instance  that  the  Spanish  found  some  vases  in  the 
pueblos  that  were  full  of  varnish  ready  for  use,1  and  at  the 
present  day  the  people  of  Guatemala  use  a  resinous  gum  to 
coat  the  surface  of  their  pottery  when  they  take  it  from  the 
fire.3  A  vase  is  mentioned  found  at  Ojo  Calienta,  New 
Mexico,  still  covered  with  a  very  fine  powder  of  mica ; 
so  that  this  may  have  been  yet  another  mode  employed. 

The  decoration  of  the  vases  is  generally  executed  with 
great  precision  ;  the  ornaments  stand  out  from  the  surface 
either  in  relief  or  in  a  different  color.4  Some,  for  instance, 
are  black  on  a  red  or  white  ground.  A  few  of  the  fragments 
picked  up  are  of  a  bronze  color,  but  it  is  impossible  to  say 

1  Bancroft :  Loc.  cit.,  vol.  IV.,  p.  714. 

*  "  Castaneda  de  Nagera  :  "  Rel.  du  Voyage  de  Cibola,"  Ternaux  Compans, 
vol.  IV.,  first  series. 
8  Bancroft  :  /.  c.,  vol.  I.,  p.  398. 
4Ch.  Rau  :  "  Indian  Pottery,"  "Smith.  Con.,"  1860,  vol.  XVI. 


244  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

by  what  processes  this  color  was  obtained.1  Fragments  have 
also  often  been  found  on  which  lines  and  geometrical  draw- 
ings have  been  traced,  as  among  the  Mound  Builders,  with  a 
pointed  instrument  or. with  the  nail  of  the  potter;  other 
vases  have  more  complicated  designs,  which  by  a  very 
remarkable  coincidence  resemble  to  a  positively  confusing 
degree  those  of  the  Etruscans  (figs.  104  and  106).  The  draw- 
ings on  the  pottery  of  Arizona  resemble  the  ornaments 
traced  on  the  walls  of  the  temple  of  Mitla,  which  again  re- 
call the  processes  used  in  ornamentation  by  the  ancient 
people  of  Italy.8 


FIG.   106. — Fragments  of  pottery. 

Other  pieces  of  pottery  are  covered  with  representations 
of  human  figures  and  of  animals.  A  fragment  is  mentioned 
as  having  been  found  on  the  banks  of  the  Gila  on  which  an 
unknown  artist  had  engraved  a  turtle  ;  another  was  supposed 
to  represent  the  head  of  a  monkey.  Birds  are  numerous, 
and  while  the  Mound  Builders  appear  to  have  preferred  the 
duck  as  a  model  the  Cliff  Dwellers  generally  chose  the  owl 

1  Putnam  :  Bull  of  the  Essex  Institute,  1880. 

*  Hoffman  :  "  Ethn.  Obs.  on  Indians  Inhabiting  Nevada,  California,  and 
Arizona,"  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  1876,  p.  454.  The  modern  pueblo  pottery, 
which  is  produced  in  enormous  quantities,  begins  to  show  evidences  of  the  influ- 
ence of  civilization  and  of  modification  for  an  archaeological  market.  Collec- 
tors should  be  on  their  guard  against  pots  with  the  "Swastika"  on  them,  or 
other  equally  remarkable  designs,  which  are  now,  it  appears,  manufactured  to 
order.  Cf.  Putnam  :  "  Peabody  Museum  Report,"  for  1882. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  245 

or  the  parrot.  To  sum  up  :  if  the  pottery  of  the  Cliff 
Dwellers  is  superior  to  that  found  in  the  mounds  it  still  more 
excels  that  now  manufactured  by  the  potters  of  the  Rio 
Grande  or  of  the  San  Juan.  The  Moqui  and  Zufii  Indians 
know  very  well  how  to  make  pottery,  and  to  produce  the 
symmetrical  forms  or  artistic  ornamentation  characteristic 
of  the  ceramic  work  of  their  predecessors  inhabitants  of  the 
pueblos. 

A  few  implements  of  quartz  or  other  rock  of  various  kinds 
are,  with  the  pottery  just  noticed,  nearly  the  sole  relics  of 
this  ancient  civilization  which  have  come  down  to  us. 
Arrow-points  are  often  found  at  the  foot  of  the  cliff-houses 
and  round  about  the  pueblos.  They  bear  witness,  as  we 
have  already  remarked,  to  the  constant  struggle  in  which 
the  men  under  notice  passed  their  lives,  compelled  to  be 
always  defending  their  homes.  Near  the  Rio  Mancos  has 
been  found  a  polished  celt  exactly  similar  to  those  of  Eu- 
rope.1 This  celt  was  eight  inches  long  by  two  and  a  half  at 
its  widest  part.  One  side  is  slightly  concave,  the  other  per- 
fectly flat.  It  was  hidden  in  one  of  the  cells  of  a  cliff-house 
under  a  heap  of  maize.  A  polished  scraper  of  silicious  schist 
has  also  turned  up,  which  may  have  been  used  to  prepare 
skins,  schist  being  too  brittle  to  be  used  either  for  drilling 
or  hammering  purposes. 

A  good  many  metates  or  stone  hand-mills  for  grinding 
corn  have  also  been  found.  These  consist  of  blocks  of 
basalt,  naturally  concave  or  artificially  rendered  so,  upon 
which  another  stone  was  pushed  backward  and  forward, 
which  fact  supplies  us  with  another  proof  that  the  Cliff 
Dwellers  were  an  essentially  agricultural  people,  living  on 
the  produce  of  the  fields  they  tilled.  These  metates  are  at 
present  in  common  use  on  the  borders  of  Mexico,  both  by 
Indians  and  by  the  not  much  more  civilized  "  greasers."  It 
is  a  curious  fact  that  these  people  often  obtain  their  metates, 
here,  as  in  Yucatan,  from  the  ancient  pueblos  or  mounds. 

Lastly,  a  mat  made  of  rushes  may  be   referred  to,  of  a 

1  Holmes  :  U.  S.  Geog.  Survey,  pi.  XLVI. 


246  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

variety  (Scirpus  valictus)  still  very  common  on  the  banks  of 
the  Mancos.  Some  ropes  woven  of  the  fibres  of  the  yucca, 
some  sea-shells,  a  few  amulets  in  stone  or  turquoise,  a  few 
bead  necklaces,  and  our  list  is  closed.  We  have  alluded  to 
the  very  small  number  of  excavations  hitherto  undertaken, 
and  the  obstacles  which  checked  the  explorers,  zealous  as 
they  were  in  the  cause  of  science  ;  and  it  will  readily  be  be- 
lieved that  very  few  of  the  objects  left  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground  were  likely  to  escape  the  rapacity  of  the  Utes  and 
Navajos,  who  are  always  wandering  about  amongst  the  ruins. 

It  is  remarkable  that,  except  for  the  copper  rings  found 
at  Pecos,  not  a  weapon  or  ornament  of  metal  has  been  found.1 
Were  such  articles  carried  off  by  the  Indians,  or  were  the 
early  inhabitants  of  the  pueblos  of  New  Mexico  and  Colorado 
ignorant  of  iron  and  bronze  ?  This  latter  hypothesis  seems 
probable,  for  the  roughly  squared  beams  supporting  their 
home  appear  to  have  been  shaped  with  stone  implements. 
We  cannot  pronounce  a  decided  opinion  on  the  question,  for 
it  can  only  be  decided  by  scientifically  conducted  excavations. 

Among  the  most  remarkable  characteristics  of  the  archae- 
ology of  the  region  are  the  paintings,  sculptures,  and 
engravings  on  rocks,  met  with  in  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Col- 
orado, and  even  in  Texas.  Among  others  which  may  be 
cited  are  those  of  the  Sierra -Waco,  thirty  miles  from  El  Paso. 

These  rock-drawings  have  caused  the  coinage  of  a  new 
word,  pictography,  which  we  use  in  our  turn,  although  we  are 
by  no  means  persuaded,  as  are  certain  archaeologists,  that  the 
Cliff  Dwellers  intended  by  means  of  pictography  to  give  a 
record  of  their  own  history,  the  struggles  in  which  they  had 
taken  part,  their  migrations  or  their  haunts.  The  figures 
are,  as  a  rule,  of  such  great  simplicity  that  the  descendants  of 
the  artists  could  learn  nothing  from  them  of  the  main  facts 
of  the  history  of  their  ancestors.  It  is  more  probable  that 
these  figures,  curious  though  they  be,  were  generally  the 
outcome  of  the  painter's  or  sculptor's  fancy. 

1 "  The  implements  and  ornaments  are  not  numerous,  include  no  articles  of 
any  metal  whatever,  and  do  not  differ  materially  from  the  articles  now  in  use 
among  the  Pueblo  Indians." — Bancroft,  /.  c.,  vol  IV.,  p.  677. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS. 


247 


It  is  not  only  on  the  rocks  that  we  find  the  representations 
under  notice  ;  the  numerous  erratic  blocks  of  the  valley  of 
the  Gila  are  covered  with  roughly  outlined  figures  of  men 
and  of  animals  '  (fig.  107).  But  it  is  chiefly  on  the  banks  of 
the  Mancos  and  the  San  Juan,  and  in  the  cafions  stretching 


FlG.  107. — Erratic  blocks  covered  with  figures.     Arizona. 

away  westward,  that  these  pictographs  abound.  Some  are 
cut  into  the  rock  to  a  depth  varying  from  a  quarter  to  half 
an  inch '(figs  108  and  109);  others  are  merely  traced  in 
broad  red  or  white  lines.  The  former,  in  many  cases  at  an 

1  Bartlett  :   "  Personal  Narrative,"  vol.   II.,  pp.  195.  206. 
'Holmes:  pis.  XLII.  and  XLIII. 


248  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

all  but  inaccessible  height,  must  have  involved  considerable 
toil.  Are  they  the  work  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers  ?  Nearly  every 
thing  points  to  the  conclusion  that  they  are,  for  they  are 
almost  all  near  the  cliff-houses.  We  must  add,  however, 
that  inscriptions  and  figures  are,  on  the  other  hand,  very  rare 
near  the  most  ancient  pueblos  ;  and  the  most  recent  are 
often,  perhaps,  of  later  date  than  the  Spanish  Conquest. 
The  appearance  of  these  inscriptions  might  have  warranted 
us  in  attributing  them  to  pre-historic  Cliff  Dwellers,  had  not 
one  of  them  represented  a  horse,1  and  we  know  that  this 
animal  was  unknown  in  America  before  the  arrival  of  the 
conquerors. 

We  must  also  notice  a  figure  resembling  rudely  a  hatchet 
(fig.  109),  met  with  repeatedly  in  these  engravings.  Its  form 
recalls  the  hatchets  engraved  on  the  megalithic  monuments 
of  Brittany.  This  is  a  curious  fact,  but  its  importance  must 
not  be  overrated. 

Among  the  most  interesting  of  the  engravings  on  rock 
we  will  mention  one  on  the  banks  of  the  San  Juan,  about 
ten  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  La  Plata.  It  represents  a 
long  series  of  men,  animals,  and  even  birds  with  long  necks 
and  long  legs,  all  going  in  the  same  direction.2  Two  men 
are  standing  up  in  a  sledge  harnessing  a  deer  which  may  be 
supposed  to  be  a  reindeer,  and  other  men  follow  or  direct 
the  march.  These  engravings  are  evidently  connected  with 
the  migration  of  a  tribe. 

Jackson  also  speaks  of  a  cliff  near  the  MacElmo  covered 
for  an  area  of  sixty  square  feet  with  figures  of  men,  stags 
and  lizards,  and  Bandelier  speaks  of  pictographs3  the  weather- 
worn condition  of  which  testifies  to  their  antiquity.  The 
latter,  situated  near  the  Pecos  ruins,  represent  the  footprints 
of  a  man  or  child,  a  human  figure  and  a  very  complete  cir- 
cle enclosing  some  small  cups  which  may  also  be  compared 
with  those  on  the  megalithic  stones  of  France.  On  the 

'Holmes:  pi.  XLIL.fig.  2. 

•Holmes:  pi,  XLIII.,  fig.  i. 

1 "  Ruins  of  the  Rio  Pecos,"  pp.  92,  et  seq. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS. 


249 


banks  of  the  Puerco  and  Zufii  rivers,1  two  of  the  tributaries 
of  the  Colorado  Chiquito,  drawings  have  been  noticed "  which 
resemble  hieroglyphics.  Their  meaning  is  unknown,  indeed 
we  cannot  even  assert  that  they  have  any  meaning. 

The  rocks  surrounding  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  the  capital 
city  of  the  Territory,  are  covered  with  sculptures  which  re- 
mind us  of  those  of  Egypt.3  Some  of  the  human  figures  of 


FIG.  108. — Pictography  on  the  banks  of  the  San  Juan. 


FlG.  109. — Pictographs  on  the  banks  of  the  San  Juan. 

life  size,  incised  in  very  hard  blue  granite,  are  situated 
more  than  thirty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  ground.  The 
height  at  which  some  of  these  sculptures  occur  has  suggested 
that  since  their  production  some  geological  phenomenon, 
such  as  the  depression  of  the  lake,  may  have  taken  place. 

1  It  was  on  the  banks  of  the  Zufii  that  Coronado  speaks  of  having  seen  the 
seven  villages  of  Cibola  in  1540. 

1  Mulhalisen  :  "  Tagebuch  einer  Reise  vom  Mississippi  nach  den  Kusten  der 
Sud-See."  Leipsic,  1858. 

1  Remy  and  Brenchley  :  "A  Journey  to  the  Great  Salt  Lake  City."  London, 
1862,  vol.  II.,  p.  362. 


250  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

This  is  yet  another  hypothesis  to  add  to  the  many  already 
noticed. 

The  desire  to  reproduce  the  figures,  animals,  and  events 
which  have  arrested  their  attention  is  one  of  the  most  char- 
acteristic features  of  the  various  American  races.  On  the 
rocks  of  Ohio  and  Wyoming  signs  have  been  noticed  which 
have  been  looked  upon  as  hieroglyphics.1  Amongst  these 
engravings  one  of  the  most  important  is  in  Licking  county; 
it  covers  a  surface  from  fifty  to  sixty  feet  long,  by  from  ten 
to  twelve  feet  wide.  Unfortunately  nearly  all  the  figures 
have  been  destroyed,  only  a  few  slight  traces  still  remaining. 
We  may  also  mention  those  of  Perrysburgand  Independence, 
Cuyahoga  county,  and  those  of  Belmont  county.  If  these 
really  are  inscriptions  it  is  impossible  now  to  decipher  them, 
but  there  is  little  probability  of  their  being  more  than  rude 
pictographs.  Here  and  there  beside  these  signs  we  see  en 
graved  a  trident,  an  harpoon,  a  bear's  foot  or  a  human  hand 
or  foot,  several  of  which  are  mentioned  as  cut  into  the  rock 
to  the  depth  of  an  inch  and  a  half. 

In  Vermont,  too,  the  rocks  bathed  by  the  Connecticut 
River  are  covered  with  engravings.  On  one  of  them  a  hu- 
man figure  can  be  made  out,  on  another  twenty  heads  of 
different  sizes,  the  largest  being  twenty  inches  long  and  the 
smallest  five  inches."  Several  of  them  have  two  rays,  two 
horns  if  you  like,  on  the  forehead,  and  the  central  figure  has 
as  many  as  six.  The  eyes  and  the  mouth  are  indicated  by 
circular  holes,  and  the-  nose  is  nearly  always  missing.  An 
engraving  at  Brattleboro  is  still  more  curious ;  it  represents 
eleven  different  subjects,  including  mammals,  birds,  and  ser- 
pents. 

Some  similar  pictographs,  to  which  authorities  are  dis- 
posed to  assign  a  very  great  antiquity,  are  to  be  seen  on  the 
walls  of  caves  in  Nicaragua.3  One  is  mentioned  near  Nihapa 

1  Whittlesey  :  "Rep.  Am.  Ass.,"  Indianapolis,  1871.  Th.  Comstock,  same, 
Detroit,  1875. 

*G.  W.  Perkins  :  "  Remarks  upon  the  Arch,  of  Vermont,"  "  Rep.  Am.  Ass.," 
St.  Louis,  1878. 

*"  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1880,  vol.  II.,  p.  716. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  2$ I 

representing  a  serpent  covered  with  feathers.  The  artist 
gave  imagination  full  scope.  Some  caves  in  the  mountains 
of  the  province  of  Oajaca  also  show  man's  handiwork.1  But 
here  we  only  find  clumsy  paintings  in  red  ochre.  Amongst 
these  can  be  distinguished  impressions  of  the  hand  in  black, 
recalling  those  noticed  by  Stephens  on  the  ruined  walls  of 
the  buildings  of  Uxmal.  Pinart,  in  his  journey  across  Sonera," 
met  with  a  great  many  inscriptions  on  rocks.  He  describes 
one  engraved  on  the  three  faces  of  a  basaltic  rock  near  the 
Rio  de  Busanig.  Although  they  are  much  defaced,  we  can 
still  make  out  on  the  northern  face  a  human  hand,  beneath 
two  concentric  circles  grouped  round  a  central  point.  The 
upper  part  also  bears  a  number  of  little  round  holes  ar- 
ranged symmetrically,  and  on  a  second  rock  rising  above  the 
first  several  other  circles  have  been  traced. 

Near  Cahorca  rises  a  rocky  circular  hillock  to  which  the 
Papagos  have  given  the  name  of  Ko  Ka.  It  consists  of  a 
heap  of  rocks  bearing  pictographs  on  their  flat  surfaces.  In 
several  places  more  ancient  designs,  including  a  series  of 
lines  or  of  symmetrical  figures,  can  be  distinguished,  but 
they  have  been  in  a  great  measure  obliterated  by  later  in- 
scriptions traced  in  white  paint. 

Such  engravings  or  paintings  are  met  with  in  all  the  re- 
gions which  once  formed  Spanish  America.  They  are  men- 
tioned as  existing  near  the  extinct  volcano  of  Masaya,  in 
the  United  States  of  Colombia  ;  on  the  banks  of  the  Orinoco, 
in  Venezuela,  where  they  are  in  such  a  state  of  decay  that 
they  can  hardly  be  recognized  ;  on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
where  they  were  noticed  as  early  as  1520  by  the  Spaniards.* 
Lieutenant  Whipple  describes  them  on  the  rocks  of  Arizona. 
Professor  Kerr  on  the  Black  Mountains  near  the  sources  of 
the  Tennessee ;  and  in  crossing  the  White  Mountains,  between 
the  towns  of  Columbus,  Nevada,  and  Benton,  California,  we 
meet  with  numerous  representations  of  men  and  animals,  or 

1  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  :     "  Voy.  surl'Isthme  de  Tehuantepec,"  p.  123. 

'"Bull.  Soc.  Geog."  Paris,  Sept.,  1880. 

1  Diego  Garcia  de  Palacios  :     "  Carta  dirigada  al  Rey  de  Espaila,"  afio  1576. 


FIG.  no. — Specimens  of  the  rock  sculptures  of  the  Bushmen  of  South  Africa. 


252 


FiO.  ni.— Engravings  found  on  rocks  in  Algeria. 
253 


254  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

with  signs  that  cannot  be  deciphered.1  Neither  the  Pah 
Utes,  occupying  the  California  seaboard,  nor  the  Shawnees, 
who  encamp  near  Columbus,  claim  them  as  the  work  of  their 
ancestors.  Twenty  miles  south  of  Benton,  the  road  follows 
a  narrow  defile,  shut  in  on  either  side  by  almost  perpendicular 
rocks,  rising  to  a  height  of  forty  or  fifty  feet.  These  stone 
walls  are  covered  with  figures  of  unknown  origin. 

The  ancient  inhabitants  of  Tennessee  have  also  left  behind 
them  paintings  on  the  cliffs  overlooking  their  great  rivers. 
Some  represent  the  sun  and  the  moon  ;  others,  mammals,  the 
bison  for  instance."  These  paintings  were  done  in  red  ochre, 
and,  like  the  sculptures  of  Utah  referred  to  above,  they  are 
at  almost  inaccessible  heights.  A  colossal  sun,  engraved  on 
a  rock  overlooking  the  Big  Harpeth,  is  visible  four  miles  off. 
At  Buffalo  Creek  these  workmen  of  the  past  have  drawn  an 
entire  herd  of  bisons,  walking  in  single  file.  Father  Mar- 
quette,  during  his  voyage  up  the  Mississippi,  saw  similar 
scenes  engraved  on  the  cliffs  between  Illinois  and  the  Mis- 
souri ;  and  more  modern  travellers  bear  witness  to  the  faith- 
fulness of  his  account.3 

In  speaking  of  South  America  we  shall  describe  rock  sculp- 
tures, similar  to  those  first  noticed ;  but  with  regard  to  them 
we  shall  also  be  unable  to  say  who  executed  them  or  when 
they  were  made.  The  only  conclusion  which  we  can  arrive  at 
is  that  resemblances  exist  between  the  instincts  'of  man  in 
all  regions.  Everywhere  man,  however  degraded  we  may 
consider  him  to  have  been,  traced  as  with  childish  vanity, 
upon  the  rocks,  on  the  walls  of  caves,  and  on  erratic  blocks, 
his  own  image  or  the  scenes  taking  place  before  his  eyes,  and 
from  this  point  of  view  nothing  could  be  more  curious  than 
a  comparison  between  the  rude  figures  of  the  Americans 
and  the  engravings  executed  by  the  Bushmen  of  South  Af- 

1  Hoffman  :  "  Ethn.  Observ.  on  Indians  Inhabiting  Nevada,  California,  and 
Arizona,"  U.  S.  Geol.  and  Geog.  Survey,  1876. 

8  Jones'  "  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,"  New  York,  1873,  p.  137. 

'"Voyages  et  Decouvertes  du  P.  Marquette  dans  1'  Amerique  Septentrionale." 
Thevenot :     "  Relation  de  Divers  Voyages  Curieux,"  Paris,  1681.     J.  G.  Shea 
"  Discovery  and  Explorations  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  p.  41. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS. 

rica,  (fig.  1 10),  or  with  those  engraved  on  the  rocks  of  Al- 
geria. This  similarity,  in  every  clime  and  at  every  period,  of 
the  taste,  instinct,  and  genius  of  man  is  the  best  proof  that 
can  be  brought  forward  of  the  common  origin  of  the  human 
race. 

As  already  stated  it  appears  certain  that  the  Cliff  Dwellers 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  pueblos  belonged  to  the  same 
race,  and  that  this  did  not  materially  differ  from  the  Moquis 
and  Zuflis  of  the  present  day.  The  buildings,  whether  of 
stone  or  of  adobe,  are  always  alike  and  always  regular ;  the 
rooms  are  everywhere  extremely  small ;  the  absence  of  stairs 
and  of  trap-doors  giving  access  from  one  story  to  another, 
points  to  a  life  led  in  common;  and  everywhere  we  find  estufas, 
places  for  meetings  alike  of  a  religious  and  secular  character. 
Both  the  Cliff  Dwellers  and  the  people  of  the  pueblos  manu- 
factured pottery  of  a  similar  kind,  and  used  the  same  kind 
of  arrow-points  and  the  same  kind  of  implements. 

All  the  relics  which  have  come  down  to  us  point  to  the 
same  conclusion,  and  it  appears  no  less  certain  that  the  peo- 
ple under  notice  differed  in  many  respects  from  the  Mound 
Builders  of  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  the  Mayas  of  Yucatan  and 
the  Nahuas  of  Mexico.  There  are  no  structures  left  by  the 
Cliff  Dwellers  resembling  either  the  truncated  pyramids, 
mounds  shaped  like  animals,  or  other  earth  mounds  of  the 
Northern  United  States.  In  the  Territory  of  Utah,  however, 
Dr.  Parry  found  a  mound  containing  several  specimens  of 
pottery  a  good  deal  like  that  of  the  pueblos.  Dr.  Palmer, 
after  many  excavations  in  the  neighborhood,  confirmed  this 
fact,  but  added  that  the  mound  in  question  was  derived  from 
crumbled  walls,  originally  of  adobes. 

Still  less  do  they  resemble  the  palaces,  temples,  and  re- 
markable buildings  erected  by  the  Mayas  or  the  Aztecs. 
The  rarity  of  pipes,  which  are  so  numerous  amongst  the  Mound 
Builders  and  northern  Indians  is  no  less  remarkable.  We 
give  a  drawing  (fig.  112)  of  one  of  the  few  pipes  found  as 
yet  in  the  district  inhabited  by  the  Cliff  Dwellers.  It  is  of 
clay,  and  the  mouth-piece  is  at  the  end  of  the  handle. 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Coronado,  the  first  Spaniard  to  visit  these  regions,  notices 
no  resemblance  between  the  Mexicans  and  the  inhabitants 
of  New  Mexico.  Father  Escalante,  who  crossed  the  country 
in  1776,  more  than  two  centuries  after  Coronado,  describes 
ruins  now  unknown,  pueblos  inhabited  when  he  saw  them, 
now  crumbled  to  dust ;  and  nothing  in  his  narrative  supports 
what  has  been  called  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  the 
Aztec  theory.1  As  yet,  nothing  justifies  us  in  deciding  that 
New  Mexico  was  peopled  by  colonists  from  Anahuac.  Two 
distinct  classes  of  remains  appear  to  have  been  observed  in 
Central  America  ;  the  Cliff  Dwellers  on  the  west  and  the 
Mound  Builders,  who  have  been  identified  by  some  with  the 
Aztecs,  on  the  east.  These  people  may  have  sprung  origi- 
nally from  the  same  source,  but  their  separation  doubtless 


FIG.  112. — Pipe  found  amongst  the  relics  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers. 

took  place  at  a  very  distant  period,  and  there  is  not  sufficient 
evidence  yet  available  to  prove  the  case  one  way  or  the 
other.5 

One  thing  is  certain  :  numerous  pueblos  existed  in  New 
Mexico  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  invasion,  and  some  of 
them,  such  as  Zufli,  Acoma,  Taos,  Jemez,  and  Pecos  have 

1  Dominguez  and  Escalante  :  "  Diario  y  Derrotero  Santa  Fe  a  Monterey," 
1776.  "Doc.  Hist.  Mex.,"  ad  series,  vol.  I.  Short,  p.  331,  speaks  of  having 
examined  a  MS.  by  Escalante  in  the  Library  of  Congress,  Washington,  which 
confirms  this  conclusion. 

5  In  the  fifth  report  of  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  America  Bandelier  gives 
an  account  of  studies  carried  on  in  1883  for  the  society  in  New  Mexico  and 
Arizona.  He  finds  a  well-defined  system  of  growth,  from  the  temporary  Indian 
lodge  to  the  many-storied  pueblo  building,  which  clearly  does  not  owe  its  origin 
to  any  external  influences.  He  has  since  been  seeking  in  the  mountains  of 
Northern  Mexico  traces  of  any  possible  connection  between  the  ancient  pueblo 
people  and  the  Aztecs,  and  it  is  announced  that  his  report  of  important  studies 
at  Cholula  and  Mitla  is  nearly  ready  for  publication. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  257 

been  inhabited  until  now.  The  pueblos  of  the  sedentary 
Indians  of  New  Mexico  are  grouped  as  follows:  I.,  be- 
tween the  frontier  of  Arizona  and  the  Rio  Grande,  Zufli, 
Acoma,  and  Laguna;  II.,  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Grande 
Taos,  Picuries,  Tehua,  Queres,  Tiguas,  and  Piros;  III.,  to 
the  west  of  the'  Rio  Grande,  Jemez ;  and  IV.,  to  the  east 
of  the  same  river,  Tanos  and  Pecos. 

Lieutenant  Wheeler,  who  visited  the  country  in  1858, 
speaks  of  having  seen  through  his  telescope  two  Moqui  pueb- 
los, at  a  distance  of  eight  or  ten  miles,  perched  on  a  rock 
overlooking  the  whole  valley.  The  buildings  were  flush 
with  the  precipice,  and  from  the  Lieutenant's  point  of  view 
presented  the  appearance  of  a  town  with  walls  and  crenel- 
lated towers.  The  whole  was  singularly  picturesque.  Each 
of  these  pueblos  is  built  round  a  rectangular  court,  enclos- 
ing the  spring  of  water  indispensable  to  the  population. 
The  walls,  which  are  of  stone,  have  no  opening  on  the  out- 
side. To  reach  the  inside,  these  walls  would  have  to  be 
either  removed  or  scaled.  The  different  stories  of  the 
houses  are  one  behind  the  other,  and  the  upper  ones  can 
only  be  reached  by  means  of  trap-doors  in  the  ceiling. 
Every  building  includes  three  stories,  and  has  no  opening 
except  on  to  the  court.  The  whole  arrangement  is  such  as 
to  offer  resistance  in  case  of  attack.  As  the  court  and  the 
communications  are  common  to  all,  the  inhabitants  must 
have  led  a  communal  existence,  such  as  is  known  to  be  char- 
acteristic of  all  American  tribes. 

We  might  well  take  this  account  as  a  description  of  an 
ancient  pueblo,  and  it  will  help  us  to  a  second  conclusion, 
which  follows  as  a  matter  of  course.  New  Mexico,  Arizona, 
Utah,  Colorado,  and  the  northern  part  of  Chihuahua,  were 
formerly  inhabited  by  a  sedentary  agricultural  and  compara- 
tively cultured  race,  who  differed  no  more  from  each  other 
than  do  the  present  inhabitants  of  the  pueblos.  The  de- 
cline of  these  people  probably  began  some  time  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Spaniards,  and  this  decadence  has  gone  on  until 
the  present  day,  when  a  few  scattered  settlements  are  the 


258  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

sole  representatives  of  a  once  numerous  and  powerful  popu- 
lation. 

The  causes  of  this  decadence  are  many.  Among  the 
most  important  we  must  certainly  include  the  perpetually 
recurrent  invasions  of  the  Apaches,  wild  and  dangerous  ene- 
mies whom  the*  Cliff  Dwellers  long  and  energetically  resisted. 
At  last,  however,  this  resistance  became  powerless  to  stem 
the  torrent,  the  people  had  to  leave  the  homes  they  had 
built,  the  hearths  often  watered  with  their  blood,  perhaps  to 
join  themselves  to  other  tribes  at  a  distance,1  who  in  their 
turn  had  to  defend  themselves,  probably  with  no  better  suc- 
cess, against  the  attacks  of  the  same  enemies. 

The  enemies  gained  ground  daily,  and  daily  the  Cliff 
Dwellers  receded  before  them.  The  end  was  inevitable.  The 
vanquished  race  was  rapidly  reduced  in  power  and  number, 
and  unfortunately  the  Spanish  conquest  could  not  restore  it. 
It  is  probable,  however,  that  the  inroads  of  the  nomad  tribes, 
however  formidable  they  may  have  been,  would  not  have 
been  enough  to  depopulate  the  country.  The  aerial  dwell- 
ings, so  difficult  of  access,  the  towers  defending  the  en- 
trances to  the  valleys,  the  arrangement  of  the  pueblos,  form- 
ing as  they  did  regular  fortresses,  would  have  secured  the 
victory  to  their  inhabitants,  had  not  another  cause,  already 
referred  to,  hastened  their  ruin.  The  destruction  of  the  for- 
ests, prolonged  droughts,  and  the  disappearance  of  water- 
courses changed  lands  which  had  been  rendered  productive  by 
cultivation  into  arid  deserts  and  valleys  choked  with  sand, 
which  strike  the  traveller  of  to-day  as  so  melancholy.  Man 
fled  from  regions  where  further  struggle  with  an  ungrateful 
nature  had  become  impossible.  He  receded  before  an  enemy 
more  dangerous  than  the  nomads,  and  against  whom  resis- 
tance was  impossible. 

It  was  reserved  to  the  nineteenth  century  to  ascertain 

1  Examples  of  similar  union  of  tribes  are  not  rare  in  the  history  of  the  Indians. 
Since  the  discovery  of  America  the  vanquished  Tuscaroras  have  been  admitted 
into  the  confederation  of  the  Five  Nations  ;  the  Alabamas,  the  Uchees,  and 
Natchez  into  that  of  the  Creeks  ;  and  in  our  own  day  the  Pecos,  decimated  by 
sickness,  found  an  asylum  amongst  the  people  of  an  allied  tribe. 


THE   CLIFF  DWELLERS.  2$g 

these  facts,  totally  unknown  a  few  years  ago.  A  more  noble 
mission  is  reserved  to  those  who  are  to  come  after  us.  It  is 
for  science  to  reestablish  that  which  the  barbarism  of  man 
has  been  permitted  to  destroy,  and  by  the  resources  of  mod- 
ern science  to  make  the  desert  blossom  as  the  rose. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   PEOPLE   OF    CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

AMERICA  does  not  stint  her  surprises  for  those  who  study 
her  ancient  history.  We  have  spoken  of  the  mounds,  so 
strange  alike  in  form  and  construction,  the  dwellings,  true 
eagle's  nests,  formed  amid  perpendicular  cliffs,  the  pueblos, 
where  a  considerable  population  lived  in  common.  We  shall 
now  consider  a  more  advanced  state  of  culture,  monuments 
in  ruins  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  invasion,  temples,  palaces, 
monoliths,  statues,  and  bas-reliefs  recalling  in  their  complexity 
those  of  Egypt  or  Assyria,  India  or  China.  These  monu- 
ments extend  over  entire  districts,  and  the  pioneers  who. cut 
their  way,  axe  in  hand,  through  the  all  but  impenetrable  for- 
ests, flattering  themselves  that  they  were  the  first  to  tread 
the  virgin  soil,  found  themselves  face  to  face  with  ruins  and 
sepulchres,  incontestable  proofs  of  the  former  presence  of 
generations  now  disappeared.  In  stating  these  facts  we  shall 
incidentally  confute  the  error  of  an  eminent  historian  who 
did  not  hesitate  to  assert  that  there  were  not  throughout  the 
whole  of  America  any  traces  of  a  single  building  of  earlier 
date  than  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  difficulties  we  meet  with  at  every  turn  increase  as  our 
account  proceeds.  Here  too  we  are  in  the  presence  of  name- 
less people,  of  races  without  a  written  history ;  and  to  add 
to  our  difficulties  new  discoveries  are  daily  made,  upsetting 
preconceived  hypotheses,  breaking  down  earlier  theories,  and 
completely  destroying  what  had  appeared  to  be  the  best 
founded  conclusions. 

The  myths  and  traditions  that  have  been  collected  may 
date  back  to  a  time  before  the  Christian  era,  but  the  hiero- 

260 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  26l 

glyphics  (fig.  1 13)  are  certainly  not  so  old.  It  is  difficult  on 
such  slight  data  to  reconstruct  a  past  culture,  the  very  ex- 
istence of  which  was  unknown  a  few  years  ago ;  and  thus 
far  no  Champollion  has  arisen  to  solve  the  enigmas  which 
have  been  preserved  in  stone.1  Before  examining  the  monu- 
ments themselves  we  must  sum  up  the  opinions  of  modern 
historians,  who  have  thrown  a  little  light  where,  before  their 
researches,  nothing  but  obscurity  and  chaos  existed. 

One  fact  appears  probable,  and  that  is  that  there  was  a 
tendency  of  population  extending  over  a  long  period  from 
the  north  toward  the  south,"  one  driving  another  before  it  as 
one  wave  of  the  sea  follows  that  in  advance  of  it.  We  can- 
not do  better  than  compare  these  successive  invasions,  with 
those  of  the  barbarous  races  that  quarrelled  over  the  parts 
of  the  dismembered  Roman  empire,  or  with  that  of  the 
Aryans,  who  from  the  farther  end  of  Asia  fell  in  hordes 
first  upon  India  and  Persia  and  then  upon  the  different  coun- 
tries of  Europe,  giving  to  the  Vanquished  as  the  price  of 
their  defeat  a  culture  undoubtedly  superior  to  that  they  had 
formerly  possessed. 

The   people  who  successively  established   themselves  in 

1  The  twelfth  century  of  our  era  is  the  limit  of  our  very  incomplete  historical 
knowledge  of  America.  All  that  has  come  down  to  us  of  earlier  days  are  a 
few  ethnological  facts  and  legends  or  fables  usurping  the  place  of  truth.  With 
such  materials  hypothesis  has  run  wild.  The  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg 
("  Popol-Vuh,"  Introd.)  says  that  in  955  B.C.  there  was  in  America  a  settled  gov- 
ernment. The  chronicle  of  Clavigero  ("  St.  del  Messico,"  book  II.  ch.  I.)  com- 
mences 596  years  before  our  era.  Veytia  ("  Hist.  Ant.  de  Mejico,"  t.  I.,  chap. 
II.)  dates  the  first  migrations  of  the  Nahuas  from  the  year  2,237  after  the  Crea- 
tion ;  while  Valentin!  ("  The.Katunes  of  Maya  History")  by  a  more  reason- 
able calculation  places  them  137  years  after  Christ.  Ixtlilxochitl  ("  Hist.  Chi- 
chimeca,"  Kingsborough,  vol.  IX.)  in  his  turn  gives  the  year  503  A.D.  as  the 
date  of  the  foundation  of  Tezcuco.  All  these  dates,  however,  are,  we  repeat, 
merely  fanciful.  There  is  no  positive  evidence  either  to  confirm  or  to  disprove 
them. 

*  Bancroft's  opinion,  however,  is  that  "  while  the  positive  evidence  in  favor 
of  the  migration  from  the  south  is  very  meagre,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the 
southern  origin  of  the  Nahua  culture  is  far  more  consistent  with  fact  and  tradi- 
tion than  was  the  north-western  origin,  so  long  accepted."  "  Native  Races," 
vol.  II.,  p.  117. 


262  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Central  America  were  probably  of  Nahuatl  race.  The  vigo- 
rous researches  being  made  in  America  itself  tend  more  and 
more  to  connect  with  this  single  source  the  Olmecs,  Toltecs, 
Miztecs,  Zapotecs,  Chichimecs,  and  Aztecs,  and  it  is  to  vari- 
ous branches  of  this  conquering  race  that  we  owe  the  ruined 
monuments  still  scattered  over  Mexico,  Yucatan,  Honduras, 
Guatemala,  and  Nicaragua,  and  found  as  far  as  the  Isthmus 
of  Tehuantepec. 

The  earliest  were  the  Mayas,  who  are  also  supposed  to 
have  been  of  Nahuatl  origin,  though  we  are  unable  to  assert 
any  thing  positive  on  this  point,  as  the  traditions,  monu- 
ments and  hieroglyphics  which  can  with  certainty  be  attrib- 
uted to  them,  appears  to  differ  from  those  of  the  Nahuas, 
and  their  language  presents  striking  disparities.1  The  last 
fact  would  form  a  conclusive  argument  against  a  common 
origin,  did  we  not  know  with  what  rapidity  dialects  are 
transformed,  which  primitively  sprang  from  a  single  source,8 
and  if  side  by  side  with  these  differences  we  did  not  note  re- 
markable resemblances,  such  as  the  monosyllabic  words  and 
the  similarity  in  the  construction  of  phrases3 ;  all  that  we  can 
really  say  at  the  present  moment  is  that  if  the  Mayas  and 
the  various  branches  of  the  Nahuas  had  really  a  common 
origin,  their  separation  certainly  preceded  the  Spanish  inva- 
sion by  a  considerable  period. 

The  Mayas  are  supposed  to  have  dwelt  upon  the  shores  of 
the  Atlantic.  They  migrated  probably  after  defeat,  and  later 
established  themselves  in  Chiapas,  on  the  banks  of  the  Usu- 
macinta  River,  in  the  midst  of  a  rich  and  fertile  country.4 

J  Kingsborough  :  "Ant.  of  Mexico,"  vol.  III.;  Prescott,  "Hist,  of  the 
Conquest  of  Mexico,"  vol.  I.,  p.  104  ;  Bancroft,  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  II., 

P-  772. 

aSenor  Orozco  y  Bcrra  made  out  fifteen  dialects  belonging  to  the  Maya. 
Among  these  we  may  mention  the  Quiche,  Tzendal,  and  Cakchiquel.  Maya 
or  its  derivatives  was  spoken  in  Tabasco,  Chiapas,  Guatemala,  part  of  San  Sal- 
vador, Honduras,  and  Nicaragua.  Some  traces  of  it  are  perhaps  too  hastily 
supposed  to  have  been  recognized  in  Cuba,  Hayti,  and  various  of  the  West  In- 
dia islands  ("  Geog.  de  las  Linguas,"  p.  98,  Mexico,  1864). 

3  Bancroft,  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  III.,  p.  769. 

4  Orozco  y  Berra,  /.  <-.,  p.  128. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 


263 


Their  empire  flourished  long,  the  rule  of  their  chiefs  or  of 
the  tribes  subject  to  them  '  extended  over  the  greater  part 


FIG.  113. — Specimen  of  hieroglyphics  found  in  Central  America. 

of  Central  America.*     Nachan  or  the  Town  of  Serpents,  of 

1  The  Mayas  had  as  many  as  thre;  districts  tributary  to  them,  the  Capitals  of 
which  were  :  Tula  or  Tulan,  generally  placed  two  leagues  from  Ococingo, 
Mayapan  in  Yucatan,  and  Copan. 

1  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  :  "  Hist,  des  Nations  Civilisees  du  Mexique  et  de 
I'Amerique  Centrale "  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  II.,  p.  523;  vol.  III.,  p.  460,  etc.; 
vol.  V.,  pp.  157  and  231. 


264  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

which  the  ruins  at  Palenqu6  exhibit  the  grandeur,  was  their 
capital,  while  Mayapan,  Tulan,  and  Copan,  were  the  chief 
towns  of  the  tributary  districts  forming  the  confederation  of 
Xibalba  or  of  the  Chanes  (Serpent). 

Such  are  the  only  at  all  trustworthy  data  that  we  possess. 
Legends  add  some  details  in  which  a  few  facts  are  mixed 
with  much  that  is  fabulous.  The  Maya  confederation,  it 
is  said,  was  founded  many  centuries  before  our  era,  by  a  mes- 
senger of  the  gods  named  Votan,  who  came,  according  to 
tradition,  from  the  other  side  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  and  the 
time  of  his  arrival  is  placed  by  the  legend  ten  centuries 
before  the  Christian  era.  Perhaps  there  may  have  been 
several  Votans,  and  the  descendants  of  the  first  retained  his 
name  as  a  title  of  honor. 

The  most  ancient  traditions  made  him  come  from  a  land 
of  shadow,  beyond  the  seas  ;  on  his  arrival,  the  inhabitants  of 
the  vast  territories  stretching  between  the  isthmus  of  Panama 
and  California,  lived  in  a  state  which  may  be  compared  with 
that  of  the  people  of  the  stone  age  of  Europe.  A  few 
natural  caves,  huts  made  of  branches  of  trees,  served  them 
as  shelter ;  their  only  garments  were  skins  obtained  in  the 
chase ;  they  lived  upon  wild  fruits,  roots  torn  out  of  the 
ground  and  raw  flesh  of  animals  which  they  devoured  while 
still  bloody.1  Legends  have  preserved  to  our  day  the  name 
of  the  Quinames,  wild  and  barbarous  giants,  whose  memory 
filled  the  Indians  with  terror,  even  during  the  Spanish  domi- 
nation." Such  doubtless  were  the  men  who  struggled  with 
the  large  animals  which  so  long  roamed  as  undisputed  mon- 
archs  in  the  forests,  pampas,  and  marshes  of  the  two  Ameri- 
cas. It  is  curious  that  nearly  every  American  tribe  has 
legends  of  barbarous  people  who  preceded  them  and  to 

1  Torquemada  :     "  Mon.  Indiana,"  vol.  I.,  chs.  15  and  20. 

*  "  Los  Quinemetin,  gigantesque  vivian  en  esta  renconada  que  se  dice  ahora 
Nueva  Espana."  Ixtlilxochitl :  "  Relaciones"  ;  Kingsborough:  "Ant.  of  Mex- 
ico," vol.  IX.,  p.  322.  Traces  are  also  supposed  to  have  been  met  with  of  a 
more  ancient  language  than  the  Maya,  Nahua,  or  their  derivatives.  See  Hum- 
boldt's  "Views  of  the  Cordilleras  "  (Mrs.  Williams'  translation,  2  vols.  octavo, 
1814)  and  Bancroft,  vol.  III.,  p.  274. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  26$ 

whom  all  evil  attributes  are  attached  in  the  current  myths. 
Sometimes,  as  among  the  Eskimo,  Aleuts,  and  northern  Tin- 
neh,  these  mythical  nomads  are  believed  to  still  exist,  hidden 
in  the  recesses  of  the  mountains  or  the  forests. 

All  the  Central  American  tribes  do  not  seem  to  have  lived 
in  an  equally  degraded  condition  before  the  period  of  the 
Mayas.  Ruins  of  considerable  extent  are  met  with  in 
Guatemala.  These  consist  of  undressed  stones  similar  to 
those  used  in  the  cyclopean  buildings  of  Greece  or  Syria ; 
but  no  tradition  refers  to  their  origin.  They  are,  however, 
attributed  with  some  reason  to  a  race  driven  back  by  con- 
quest, and  superior  in  culture  to  the  people  overcome  by  the 
Maya  invasion  of  Central  America. 

It  was  by  war  that  Votan,  placed  after  his  death  among 
the  gods,  established  the  authority  of  his  tribe,  and  it  was 
by  war  that  his  successors  maintained  its  supremacy.  Le- 
gends have  come  down  to  us  of  a  long  series  of  victories  and 
of  defeats,  of  internecine  struggles  and  foreign  wars,  alliances 
broken  off,  and  revolts  of  tributary  people.  A  manuscript 
translated  by  Don  J.  Perez,  called  "  Katunes  of  Maya  His- 
tory," gives  according  to  the  translator  the  history  of  the 
Mayas  from  144  to  1536  A.D.,  but  according  to  Professor 
Valentini,  who  reckons  the  Ahau  or  cycle  differently,  from 
142  to  1544.  The  Katunes  give  only  incidents  of  war,  as  if 
times  of  peace  were  unworthy  of  attention.  This  manu- 
script escaped  the  general  auto  da  ft  ordered  by  the  Spanish 
priests  in  1 569.  The  name  of  Katunes  (from  Kat,  stone  and 
tun,  to  interrogate)  was  given  in  Yucatan  to  engraved  stones 
bearing  dates  or  inscriptions  relating  to  historical  events. 
These  stones  were  imbedded  in  the  walls  of  public  buildings. 
Every  thing  points  to  the  conclusion  that  the  inscriptions 
were  not  very  ancient.1 

In  accordance  with  the  general  law  of  human  affairs  the 
confederation  declined,  one  invasion  succeeded  another,  and 
the  opposition  of  the  Mayas  to  their  invaders  was  that  of  a 

1  Salisbury  :  "  Proc.  Am.  Antiq.  Soc.,"  October  21,  1879.  Stephens  :  "  Yu- 
catan,"App.,  vols.  I.  and  II. 


266  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

worn-out  people,  no  longer  able  to  defend  itself  against 
younger  and  more  vigorous  races.  The  result  could  not  be 
doubtful.  Amongst  the  conquered  tribes,  some  accepted  a 
new  usurpation,  others  retired  to  Yucatan  and  Guatemala, 
where  their  descendants  offered  an  heroic  resistance  to  the 
Spanish  conquerers.1 

We  know  very  little  about  the  religion,  the  manners  or 
the  customs  of  the  Mayas.  Three  Maya  manuscripts  are 
known  :  the  Codex  Perezianus,  preserved  in  the  Biblioth£que 
Nationale  at  Paris;  the  Dresden  codex,  known  since  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  long  described  as  an  Aztec  manu- 
script ;  it  is  published  in  the  large  work  by  Lord  Kings- 
borough  ;  and  lastly,  the  Troano  manuscript  (named  after 
Senor  Tro  y  Ortolano,  one  of  its  owners),  found  at  Madrid 
in  1865.  Some  doubts  have  been  expressed  with  regard  to 
this,  and  also  to  a  manuscript  which  figured  in  1881  at  the 
American  Exhibition  at  Madrid,  and  which  is  looked  upon 
as  a  continuation  of  the  Troano  manuscript/ 

The  gods  of  the  Mayas  appear  to  have  been  less  sangui- 
nary than  those  of  the  Nahuas.  The  immolation  of  a  dog 
was  with  them  enough  for  an  occasion  that  would  have  been 
celebrated  by  the  Nahuas  by  hecatombs  of  victims.  Human 
sacrifices  did  however  take  place,  and  prisoners  of  war  were 
chosen  in  preference ;  failing  them,  parents  offered  up  their 
children  as  the  sacrifice  most  pleasing  to  the  gods.3 

One  remarkable  distinction  is  noticed :  the  office  of  sacri- 
ficer  was  considered  the  greatest  dignity  to  which  a  Mexican 
could  aspire  ;  among  the  Mayas,  on  the  contrary,  it  was 
looked  upon  as  impure  and  degrading.4 

At  Chichen-Itza,  capital  of  the   Itzas,    one  of  the  Maya 

'A.  de  Remsal :  "  Hist,  de  la  Prov.  de  S.  Vincente  de  Chyapa,"  Madrid, 
1619,  p.  264.  Juarros :  "  Hist,  of  the  Kingdom  of  Guatemala,"  London, 
1824,  p.  14.  Bancroft  /.  c.,  vol.  I.,  p.  647  et seq.  ;  vol.  V.,  p.  616. 

3 An  investigation  by  Prof.  Cyrus  Thomas  of  the  Manuscript  Troano,  throw- 
ing much  new  light  upon  the  subject,  is  on  the  point  of  publication  by  the 
Ethnological  Bureau  of  the  United  States. 

s  Diego  de  Landa,  "  Relacion  de  las  cosas  de  Yucatan,"  p.  166  ;  Paris,  1864. 

4 "  El  oficio  de  abrir  el  pecho  a  los  sacrificados  que  en  Mexico  era  estimado, 
aqui  era  poco  honoroso."  Herrera,  "  Hist.  Gen.,"  dec.  IV.,  book  X.,  ch.  IV. 


THE   PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  267 

tribes  of  Yucatan,  these  sacrifices  were  more  numerous.  A 
deep  excavation  was  dug  in  the  centre  of  the  town  and  filled 
with  water.  An  altar,  reached  by  a  flight  of  steps  cut  in 
the  rock,  rose  at  the  very  edge  of  the  precipice.  Trees  and 
shrubs  surrounded  it  on  every  side,  and  to  add  to  the  awe 
which  the  spot  naturally  inspired,  a  perpetual  silence  reigned 
there.  In  the  days  of  Votan's  first  successors,  in  accordance 
with  the  instructions  of  the  messenger  of  the  gods,  nothing 
was  offered  up  but  animals,  flowers,  or  incense  ;  but  by  de- 
grees the  people  went  back  to  the  most  revolting  sacrifices, 
and  in  the  years  preceding  the  fall  of  the  confederation,  if 
they  were  threatened  with  any  calamity,  such  as  the  failure 
of  the  harvest  or  the  cessation  of  rain,  so  indispensable  in 
the  tierra  caliente,  the  populace  hastened  to  gather  round 
the  altar,  and  to  appease  the  anger  of  the  gods  with  human 
victims.  These  victims  were  generally  young  virgins ;  they 
marched  triumphantly  to  their  fate,  arrayed  in  rich  apparel 
and  surrounded  by  an  imposing  escort  of  priests  and 
priestesses.  Whilst  the  fumes  of  the  incense  rose  to- 
ward heaven,  the  priests  explained  to  the  virgins  what  they 
were  to  ask  of  the  gods,  before  whom  they  were  to  ap- 
pear. Then,  when  the  incense  was  dying  out  upon  the  altar, 
they  were  flung  down  into  the  abyss,  whilst  the  prostrate 
crowd  went  on  offering  up  their  ardent  petitions.  In  Nica- 
ragua, every  one  of  the  eighteen  months  into  which  the 
year  was  divided  opened  with  a  holiday.  The  high-priest 
announced  the  number  of  victims  to  be  offered  up  and  the 
names  of  those  he  had  chosen,  either  among  the  prisoners 
or  among  the  inhabitants  themselves.1  The  unhappy  wretch 
thus  pointed  out  was  pitilessly  seized  and  stretched  upon 
the  altar ;  the  sacrificer  walked  slowly  round  him  three  times, 
chanting  funeral  hymns ;  then  he  approached,  quickly 
opened  the  breast,  tore  out  the  heart,  and  bathed  his  face  in 
the  still  smoking  blood.  When  the  victim  was  a  prisoner 
the  body  was  at  once  cut  up ;  the  heart  belonging  to  the 
high-priest,  the  feet  and  hands  to  the  chiefs,  the  thighs  to  the 

1  Peter  Martyr  d'Anghiera,  "  De  Orbe  Novo,"  dec.  VI.,  book  VI. 


268  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

warrior  who  had  had  the  honor  of  his  capture,  the  entrails 
to  the  trumpeters,  the  rest  distributed  among  the  people, 
and  lastly,  the  head  was  hung  upon  the  branch  of  a  tree  as  a 
religious  trophy.  If  the  victim  was  a  child  offered  or  sold  by 
its  parents,  the  body  was  buried,  custom  not  permitting 
the  assistants  to  eat  the  flesh  of  one  of  their  own  'people. 
These  sacrifices,  which  dated  from  a  very  remote  antiquity, 
lasted  until  the  Spanish  conquest.  Herrera1  relates  that  sev- 
eral Spanish  prisoners  were  thus  devoured,  and  Albornoz 
adds  that  in  Honduras  the  Indians  gave  up  eating  the  flesh 
of  the  white  victims  because  it  was  too  tough  and  stringy. 

Sacrifices  were  always  succeeded  by  several  holidays,  dan- 
cing, banquets,  and  brutal  drunkenness.8  Husbands  had 
to  refrain  from  all  intercourse  with  their  wives,  and  the  de- 
vout pierced  the  tongue,  ears,  and  other  parts  of  their  bodies, 
and  smeared  the  lips  and  beard  of  the  idols  with  the  blood 
from  their  wounds.3  At  other  times  blood  was  drawn  from 
the  male  organ,  and  some  grains  of  maize  were  sprinkled 
with  it,  for  the  possession  of  which  the  assistants  disputed 
eagerly,  believing  it  to  be  an  aphrodisiac.4  In  Guatemala  a 
woman  and  a  female  dog  were  sacrificed  before  every  battle. 
The  horror  these  details  inspire  is  our  excuse  for  cutting  short 
the  enumeration.  Nowhere  was  human  barbarity  greater 
than  amongst  the  early  Americans,  and  the  cruelty  of  the 
executioners  was  only  equalled  by  the  stoicism  of  their 
victims. 

We  do  not  know  who  the  gods  were  who  were  supposed  to 
be  honored  by  these  revolting  sacrifices,  and  very  little  has 
been  learned  yet  about  the  mythology  of  the  Mayas.  Some 
of  their  idols  represent  men,  others  animals.  Peter  Martyr 

1 "  Hist.  Gen.  de  los  Hechos  de  los  Castillanos  en  las  Islas  e  Tierra  Firme 
del  Mar  Oceano,"  dec.  I,  book  V.,  chap.  V.;  dec.  III.,  book  IV.,  chap.  VII.  ; 
dec.  IV.,  book  VIII.,  chap.  IX.;  book  XCIV. 

"The  Mayas  were  acquainted  with  several  fermented  drinks.  The  Itzas  pre- 
pared one  of  a  mixture  of  cacao  and  maize.  In  other  parts  honey  and  the  juices 
of  the  banana,  figs,  and  other  fruits,  were  fermented. 

*Oviedo  y  Valdes  :  "  Hist.  Gen.  y  Natural  de  las  Indias,"  Madrid,  1851-54, 
vol.  IV.,  p.  52. 

4  Herrera,  /.  c.;  Peter  Martyr,  /.  c. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  269 

speaks  of  one  huge  serpent  made  of  stone  and  asphaltum 
set  up  in  Yucatan,  and  we  know  that  the  Itzas,  greatly  struck 
with  the  appearance  of  Cortes'  horse,  hastened  to  copy  it  in 
stone  and  place  it  amongst  their  idols. 

The  Mayas  knew  nothing  of  iron  ;  copper  and  gold  were 
the  only  metals  they  used,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  they 
understood  smelting  metals.  Christopher  Columbus  is  said, 
however,  to  have  seen,  off  the  coast  of  Honduras,  a  boat 
laden  with  crucibles,  filled  with  ingots  of  metal  and  hatchets 
made  of  copper  which  had  been  fetched  from  a  distance. 
Gold  was  very  plentiful  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest, 
and  it  was  used  for  making  ornaments  of  all  kinds.1  The 
weapons  in  use  were  slings,  spears,  arrows,  and  darts  pointed 
with  silex,  obsidian,  porphyry,  copper,  or  bone.  The  war- 
riors wore  well-padded  cotton  armor,  often  so  heavy  that  a 
soldier  once  prostrated  could  not  always  get  up  again ;  their 
round  shields  were  decorated  with  feathers  and  covered  with 
cotton  cloth  or  with  the  skins  of  animals  which  they  had 
killed  in  the  chase.  The  Mayas  were  acquainted  with  navi- 
gation. Oviedo  relates  that  the  inhabitants  of  Nicaragua 
used  balsas  for  crossing  the  rivers  ;  these  balsas  were  reg- 
ular rafts  of  five  or  six  logs,  bound  together  with  creepers 
and  supporting  a  deck  of  interlaced  branches.1  The  Chia- 
panecs  used  calabashes  for  floats.  In  other  localities  naviga- 
tion was  more  advanced  ;  the  Guatemalians  hewed  out  the 
trunks  of  the  cedar  and  the  mahogany  tree,  and  their  canoes 
might  be  counted  by  thousands  on  their  lakes  and  rivers. 
The  people  of  Yucatan  used  trunks  of  trees  in  the  same  way, 
and  their  boats,  which  they  guided  with  great  skill  with  the 
help  of  a  steering  oar,  were  capable  of  holding  as  many  as 
fifty  people.  Some  say  that  sailing  vessels  were  also  used. 

'Cortes  :  "  Cartas  y  Relacionesal  Emperador  Carlos  V.,"  Paris,  1866.  Her- 
rera  ("  Hist.  Gen.,"  decade  III.,  book  IV.,  chs.  V.  and  VI.)  speaks  of 
golden  idols  and  hatchets.  Cogolludo  ("  Hist,  de  Yucatan,"  Madrid,  1688.) 
in  his  turn  speaks  of  little  figures  representing  fish  and  geese  ;  and  Brasseur  de 
Bourbourg  ("  Hist,  des  Nat.  Civ.,"  vol.  II.,  p.  69),  of  finely  chased  vases,  all  of 
gold. 

*"Hist.  Gen.,"  vol.  III.,  p.  100. 


2/0  PRE-HISTGRIC  AMERICA. 

A  balsa  met  with  by  Pizarro,  near  the  second  degree  of  north 
latitude,  and  the  boat  seen  by  Christopher  Columbus,  were 
reported  to  have  been  thus  rigged  ' ;  but  these  facts  are  very 
much  disputed,  and  we  only  know  that  the  last-named  vessel 
was  of  the  same  length  as  the  Spanish  galleys  of  eight  feet 
beam,  that  it  was  manned  by  twenty-five  men,  and  that  in 
the  middle  was  a  canopy  of  matting  to  protect  the  women 
and  children  from  the  heat  of  the  sun. 

The  houses  inhabited  by  these  people  were  of  a  very  great 
variety,  but  this  need  not  surprise  us  when  we  remember 
the  great  extent  of  the  confederation  of  Xibalba,  and  the 
very  different  tribes  composing  it.  The  Quiches  and  the 
Cakchiquels  inhabiting  the  highlands  of  Guatemala  built 
their  towns,  as  did  the  Cliff  Dwellers,  on  points  difficult  of 
access,  and  surrounded  them  with  lofty  walls  and  deep 
trenches.  Grijalva  and  Cordova,  the  first  Spaniards  to  visit 
the  coast  of  Yucatan,  speak  of  houses  built  of  stone 
cemented  with  a  mortar  made  of  lime,  and  covered  in  with 
roofs  of  reeds  or  palm-leaves,  sometimes  even  with  slabs  of 
stone.2  These  houses  had  door-ways,  but  no  doors,  and 
every  one  was  free  to  go  in  and  out. 

In  Nicaragua,  the  walls,  like  those  of  the  jacals  of  the 
Indians,  were  of  cane.  The  houses  of  the  chiefs  were 
erected  on  artificial  platforms,  often  several  feet  high. 
Cortez  tells  us  3  that  the  one  he  lived  in,  near  the  Gulf  of 
Dulce,  consisted  merely  of  a  roof  supported  on  posts.  The 
temples,  with  one  notable  exception,  were  not  more  impos- 

1  Herrera  :  "Hist.  Gen.,"  dec,  I.,  book  V.,  ch.  V. ;  Cogolludo  :  "Hist, 
de  Yucatan,"  p.  4.  At  the  present  day  the  Haidas,  living  on  the  Queen  Char- 
lotte Islands,  build  similar  boats  capable  of  holding  one  hundred  people,  and 
are  not  afraid  to  undertake  long  voyages  in  them. 

a  Juan  de  Grijalva  :  "  Cronica  de  laOrdende  N.  P.  S.  Augustin,"  Mexico, 
1624.  "  Las  casas  son  de  piedro  y  ladrillo,  con  la  cubierta  de  paja  o  rama,  y 
dun  alguna  de  lanchas  de  piedra."  Gomara  :  "  Hist,  de  Mexico,"  Antwerp, 
1554,  folio  23.  "  The  houses  were  of  stone  or  brick  and  lyme,  very  artificially 
composed.  To  the  square  courts  or  first  habitations  of  their  houses  they  as- 
cended by  ten  or  twelve  steps.  The  roof  was  of  reeds  or  stalks  or  herbs." 
"  Purchas  His  Pilgrimes,"  London,  1625-6- 

*  "  Cartas,"  pp.  268,  426.  447. 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA,  2JI 

ing  than  the  houses  of  the  people.  The  images  of  the  gods 
were  kept  in  very  dark  subterranean  rooms.  Before  each 
temple  rose  a  truncated  pyramid,  resembling  those  of 
Florida  or,  Mississippi.  It  was  there  that  the  sacrifices  were 
offered  up  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people.1 

We  have  now  summed  up  all  that  is  really  known  of  the 
Mayas.  The  temples  and  palaces  of  which  the  ruins  are 
still  standing  give  a  better  idea  of  their  artistic  taste  and 
social  organization ;  but  before  commencing  their  study  we 
must  speak  of  the  Nahuas,  who  overran  in  their  turn  these 
countries  whose  resources  had  become  celebrated. 

As  already  stated,  we  must  include  under  the  title  of 
Nahuas  the  tribes,  evidently  of  the  same  origin,  who  suc- 
cessively dominated  Anahuac.8 

TheToltecs1  were  the  first  to  establish  a  regular  govern- 
ment, and  this  government  gradually  spread  to  the  neigh- 
boring countries.  These  Toltecs  arrived  about  the  sixth 
century  of  our  era ;  later  they  were  replaced  by  the 
Chichimecs,  who  in  their  turn  were  to  be  vanquished  by  the 
combined  forces  of  the  Aztecs,  Acolhuas,  and  Tepanecs. 
Finally  the  Aztecs,  as  conquerors  of  their  former  allies,  re- 
mained sole  masters  of  Mexico  until  the  Spanish  conquest. 
Between  the  sixth  and  sixteenth  centuries  then  there  were 
three  distinct  periods  in  the  Nahuatl  rule :  that  of  the 
Toltecs,  that  of  the  Chichimecs,  and  that  of  the  Aztecs. 
Between  these  two  limits  we  must  place  the  numerous  in- 
vasions of  the  various  people  who,  driven  on  as  by  an  irre- 

1  Oviedo  :  "  Hist.  Gen.,"  vol.  IV.,  p.  27.     Peter  Martyr  :  dec.,  VI.,  book  V. 

1  The  prefix  A  in  Anahuac  appears  to  be  an  abbreviation  of  Atl,  water. 
Anahuac  may  therefore  be  translated  as  the  country  of  the  Nahuas  by  the 
water.  It  is  difficult  to  fix  the  extent  of  this  country.  It  varied  greatly  at  dif- 
ferent periods.  We  think,  however,  that  it  was  limited  on  the  Atlantic  by  the 
iSth  and  aist  degrees  of  N.  lat.,  and  on  the  Pacific  by  the  I4th  and  igth. 
Becker  :  "  On  the  Migrations  of  the  Nahuas  "  ;  Cong,  des  Ame'ricanistes,  Lux- 
embourg, 1877. 

8  The  name  of  Toltecs,  which  we  take  for  want  of  a  better,  is  founded  on  very 
insufficient  data.  Sahagun,  one  of  the  most  ancient  Spanish  historians,  was, 
we  think,  the  first  to  use  it,  in  his  "Hist.  Gen.  de  las  Cosas  de  Nueva 
Espana." 


2/2  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

sistible  force,  precipitated  themselves  toward  this  common 
centre.1 

All  these  people  belonged  to  one  race,  all  spoke  dialects 
apparently  springing  from  the  same  source.  This  point  has 
been  hotly  disputed.  "  From  a  careful  examination  of  the 
early  authorities,  I  can  but  entertain  the  opinion  that  the 
Toltec,  Chichimec,  and  Aztec  languages  are  one."  These 
conclusions  of  Bancroft's  (vol.  III.,  p.  724)  are  also  mine. 

This  is  an  important  point ;  the  identity  or  the  relation- 
ship of  languages  is  incontestably  an  ethnological  fact,  which 
establishes  the  relationship  of  nations.2 

Very  little  is  known  of  this  past ;  from  the  time  of  the  de- 
struction of  the  Xibalba  confederation  chronological  data 
are  most  confused,  and  the  history  of  Central  America  is 
shrouded  in  mystery  which  can  be  only  very  imperfectly 
penetrated. 

The  ancient  American  races  preserved  the  tradition  of  dis- 
tinct migrations,  in  their  hieroglyphics  and  pictographs.  Ac- 
cording to  these  traditions  it  was  from  a  country  situated  on 
the  north  or  the  northwest  that  the  Nahuas  came.  This  is 
the  version  of  all  Spanish  historians,  and  we  may  mention 
amongst  them  Duran,  Veytia,  Torquemada,  Vetancurt,  and 
Clavigero.  Bancroft,  however,  (vol.  V.,  pp.  219,  616,  et.  seq.} 
thinks  these  people  came  from  the  south.  We  are  obliged 
to  add  that  his  reasons  for  this  opinion  do  not  appear  to  us 
conclusive. 

This  country  called  Huehue-  Tlapallan  in  the  Popol-Vuh ; 
Tulan-Zuiwa  by  other  historians,3  must  be  the  same  as  the 
country  of  Amaquemecan,  the  birthplace  of  the  Chichimecs. 

Ferdinand  Alva  de  Ixtlilxochitl,  a  Christian  descendant 
of  the  rulers  of  the  country,  has  endeavored  to  trace  the 
ancient  history  of  his  race.4  It  is  too  easy  to  recognize  in 

1  Bancroft  with  his  usual  accuracy  enumerates  these  people.  We  can  but 
refer  the  reader  to  him.  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  II.,  pp.  103,  et  seq. 

*  F.  von  Hellwald  :   "  The  American  Migrations,"  "  Smith.  Cont.,"  1866. 

'  An  attempt  has  been  made  to  identify  Tulan-Zuiwa  with  the  seven  caves 
that  play  such  an  important  part  in  Aztec  traditions. 

4  "  Relaciones  "  and  "  Hist.  Chichimeca."  Kingsborough  :  "  Ant.  of  Mex.," 
vol.  IX, 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  2J$ 

his  narrative  the  religious  influence  of  the  Spanish  mission- 
aries to  accord  it  any  great  confidence.  According  to  him 
seven  families  were  saved  from  the  deluge.  After  long  and 
arduous  journeys  their  descendants  settled  in  Huehue- 
Tlapallan,  a  fertile  country  and  pleasant  to  live  in,  adds  the 
historian.1 


FIG.  114. — Quetzacoatl  (Ethnographical  Department  of  the  Trocadero 
Museum,  Paris). 

Their  sojourn  was  long  and  their  fortunes  were  various ; 
they  were  at  last  compelled  to  leave  their  adopted  country 
after  numerous  defeats,  and  it  was  then  that  they  went 

1  Bancroft  (vol.  V.,  pp.  208-218)  gives  a  summary  of  the  whole  of  this  his- 
tory, which  is  legendary  rather  than  serious. 


274  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

southward  to  found  a  new  country.  A  singular  fact  in  all  the 
legends  collected  is  the  reported  arrival  of  white  and  bearded 
strangers  wearing  black  clothes,  who  have  been  absurdly 
identified  as  Buddhist  missionaries,  who  came  to  preach  new 
doctrines  to  the  Nahuas.  Of  these  strangers  there  is  no  cer- 
tain information,  all  that  is  definitely  alleged  being  that  the 
chief  was  called  Quetzacoatl,  or  "  the  serpent  covered  with 
feathers "  (fig.  1 14).  The  first  Spanish  writers  choose  to 
see  in  Quetzacoatl  St.  Thomas,  who  passed  from  India  to 
America.  Legends  about  him  are  numerous,  and  their 
variety  justifies  us  in  supposing  that  imaginary  or  real 
actions  of  several  Maya  and  Nahua  gods  were  attributed  to 
him.  All  is  confusion  on  this  point.1  He  was  worshipped 
by  the  people  as  the  incarnation  of  Tonacateatl,  the  serpent 
sun,  the  creator  of  all  things,  the  supreme  god  of  the 
Nahuatl  mythology.  It  is  to  Quetzacoatl  that  the  myths 
and  traditions  of  the  Nahuas  chiefly  refer  ;  numerous  temples 
were  dedicated  to  him,  his  attributes  were  represented  in 
bas-reliefs,  and  his  image  (fig.  1 1 5)  is  met  with  under  the 
most  different  aspects,  in  terra-cotta  and  in  stone,  wherever 
excavations  have  been  attempted.  All  the  museums  of 
Europe  and  America  are  well  stocked  with  representations 
of  Quetzacoatl ;  those  in  the  Louvre  have  been  described  by 
M.  de  Longp£rier  ("  Notice  sur  les  monuments  exposes  dans 
la  Salle  des  Ant.  Ame"ricaines ").  The  new  ethnological 
museum  of  the  Trocadero  is  not  less  rich.  Thanks  to  the 
courtesy  of  its  learned  director  Dr.  Hamy  we  are  able  to 
give  from  it  a  curious  figure  of  the  god  in  question,  (fig.  1 14) 
represented  seated  with  crossed  legs  as  is  Buddha  in  his 
images. 

There  appear  to  have  been  very  hotly  contested  religious 
disputes ;  constant  wars  broke  out  between  the  sectarians 
following  the  god  Votan  and  those  who  worshipped  Quetza- 
coatl, and  the  vanquished  on  either  side  perished  under  hor- 
rible tortures,  or  were  compelled  to  fly  their  country. 

'Bancroft,  vol.  III.,  Rp.  450,451,  et  seq.  Muller :  "  Americanischen 
Urreligionen."  Basel,  1869,  p.  486,  etc. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 


275 


In  spite  of  wars  and  discord  the  time  of  the  Toltec  domi- 
nation is  enshrined  in  the  memory  of  the  Nahuas  as  their 
golden  age.  The  Toltecs,  they  tell  us  were  tall,  well- 
proportioned,  with  clear  yellow  complexions;  their  eyes 


FIG.    115. — Quetzacoatl. 

were  black,  their  teeth  very  white  ;  their  hair  was  black  and 
glossy;  their  lips  were  thick;  their  noses  were  aquiline,  and 
their  foreheads  were  receding.  Their  beards  were  thin,  and 
they  had  very  little  hair  on  their  bodies  ;  the  expression  of 


276  PRE-HISTOR1C  AMERICA. 

their  mouths  was  sweet,  but  that  of-  the  upper  part  of  their 
face  severe.  They  were  brave,  but  cruel,  eager  for  revenge, 
and  the  religious  rights  practised  by  them  were  sanguinary. 
Intelligent  and  ready  to  learn,  they  were  the  first  to  make 
roads  and  aqueducts ;  they  knew  how  to  utilize  certain  metals ; 
they  could  spin,  weave  and  dye  cloth,  cut  precious  stones, 
build  solid  houses  of  stone  cemented  with  lime  mortar, 
found  regular  towns,  and  lastly  build  mounds  which  may 
justly  be  compared  with  those  of  the  Mississippi  valley.' 
To  them  popular  gratitude  attributes  the  invention  of  medi- 
cine, and  the  vapor  bath  (temazcallt).  Certain  plants3  to 
which  curative  properties  were  attributed  were  the  remedies 
mostly  used.  In  the  towns,  we  are  told,  were  hospitals 
where  the  poor  were  received  and  cared  for  gratuitously.8 

Our  information  respecting  the  commerce  of  the  Toltecs 
is  very  vague.  We  know,  however,  that  it  was  important. 
At  certain  periods  of  the  year  regular  fairs  were  held  at 
Toltan  and  Cholula  ;  the  products  of  the  regions  washed  by 
both  oceans  were  seen  side  by  side  with  numerous  objects 
made  by  the  Toltecs  themselves.  These  objects  were  of 
great  variety,  for  though  iron  was  unknown  to  them  the 
Toltecs  worked  in  gold,  silver,  copper,  tin,  and  lead.4  Their 
jewelry  is  celebrated,  and  the  few  valuable  ornaments  which 
escaped  the  rapacity  of  the  Conquistadores  are  still  justly 
admired.  The  Toltecs  cut  down  trees  with  copper  hatchets, 
and  sculptured  bas-reliefs  and  hieroglyphics  with  stone  im- 
plements. For  this  purpose  flint,  porphyry,  basalt,  and 
above  all,  obsidian,  the  istli  of  the  Mexicans,  were  used. 
Emeralds,  5  turquoises,  amethysts,  of  which  large  deposits 
were  found  in  various  places,  were  sought  after  for  making 

1  Bancroft,  vol.  I.,  p.  24. 

*  "  Casi  todos  sus  males  curan  con  yerbas."  Gomara  :  "  Hist,  de  Mexico," 
Antwerp,  1554,  fol.  117. 

* "  En  las  cuidades  principales  *  *  *  habea  hospitales  dotadas  de  rentas 
y  vasallos,  donde  se  resabian  y  curaban  los  enfermos  pobres."  Las  Casas  : 
"  Hist.  Apol."  MS.  quoted  by  Bancroft,  vol.  II.,  p.  597. 

4  Ixtlilxochitl :     "  Relaciones."     Kingsborough,  vol.  IX.,  p.  332. 

6  "  Gli  smeraldi  erano  tanto  comuni,  che  non  v'  era  signora  che  non  ne 
avesse."  Clavigero :  "  St.  Ant.  del  Messico,"  vol.  II.,  pp.  206-7. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  1J7 

jewelry  for  both  men  and  women.  At  Cholula  a  famous 
kind  of  pottery  was  made,  including  vases  and  the  utensils 
in  daily  use,  censers,  and  idols  for  the  temples  of  the  gods 
and  common  ornaments  for  the  people. 

The  weapons  of  the  Toltecs  resembled  those  of  the 
Mayas.  Like  them,  too,  they  wore  garments  padded  with 
cotton,  forming  regular  armor  impenetrable  to  arrows 
and  javelins.  Their  round  shields  called  chimallis  were 
made  of  light  and  flexible  bamboos,  and  those  of  their 
chiefs  were  ornamented  with  plaques  of  gold,  insignia  of  the 
rank  of  their  owners. 

Cremation  appears  to  have  been  practised  very  early.  It 
is  said  that  the  Nahuas  burned  the  bodies  of  their  chiefs,  so 
as  to  be  able  to  carry  their  ashes  about  with  them  in  their 
migrations ;  Ixtlilxochitl  speaks  of  a  Chichimec  chief  being 
killed  in  war,  whose  body  was  burned  on  the  field  of  battle.1 
The  body  of  Topiltzin,  the  last  ruler  of  the  Toltec  race, 
was  also  burned.  With  the  common  people,  however, 
burial  was  the  usual  mode  of  disposing  of  the  dead3;  such 
was  the  purpose  of  the  hundreds  of  tumuli  still  in  existence 
near  Teotihuacan.'  Amongst  the  Chichimecs,  on  the  con- 
trary, cremation  was  the  general  practice.4  Human  sacri- 
fices *  accompanied  funeral  ceremonies ;  women  were  burned 
alive  upon  the  funeral  pile  of  their  husbands,  and  they  ac- 
cepted this  cruel  death  with  joy,  for  it  opened  to  them  the 
first  celestial  sphere,  where  they  could  follow  their  husbands. 
If  they  refused  to  submit  to  this  sacrifice,  their  future 

1  "  Relaciones,"  loc.  cit.,  pp.  325,  327,  332,  388. 

1  "  La   gente  menuda   coraunmente    se    enterrana,"    Gomara,  loc.  fit.,  fol. 
308. 
*  Sahagun  :  "  Hist.  Gen.,"  vol.  III.,  book  X.,  p.  141.  Ixtlilxochitl,  loc.  cit., 

P-  327. 

4  Torquemada :  "  Monarquia  Indiana,"  Madrid,  1723,  vol.  I.,  pp.  60, 
72,  87. 

8  The  victims  were  generally  prisoners  of  war.  At  royal  funerals  were  also 
offered  up  those  who  were  born  in  the  five  complementary  days  of  their 
year,  which  were  looked  upon  as  of  bad  omen.  Ixtlilxochitl,  loc.  cit.,  p.  379 
and  388.  Veytia  :  "Hist.  Antigua  de  Mejico,"  Mexico,  1836,  vol.  III.,  pp. 
8,  etseq. 


278  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

life  had  to  be  passed  in  Mictlan,  a  gloomy  and  solitary 
abode. 

The  Toltecs  formed  a  grand  confederation  of  tribes,  under 
the  government  of  hereditary  chiefs.  By  a  somewhat  strange 
condition,  of  which  we  know  no  other  example  in  the  his- 
tory of  races,  the  rulers  could  only  reign  for  a  cycle  of 
years  (Xuihmolpilli). — This  cycle  was  fixed  at  fifty-two 
years,  and  when  this  time,  which,  it  must  be  admitted,  was 
of  considerable  length,  was  accomplished,  the  chief  handed 
over  to  his  successor  the  power  and  insignia  of  office.  An- 
other obligation,  little  in  harmony  with  the  customs  of  the 
Nahuas,  with  whom  concubinage  was  legal,  was  imposed 
upon  the  chief :  he  could  not  have  more  than  one  wife,  and 
if  she  died  before  him,  he  was  forbidden  to  re-marry,  and  he 
could  not  even  take  a  concubine.  Second  marriage  was 
also  forbidden  to  the  wives  of  rulers.1 

The  traditions  which  have  come  down  to  us  of  the  mag- 
nificence of  the  Toltec  rulers  are  interesting,  and  probably 
much  exaggerated.  The  palace  of  Quetzacoatl,"  according 
to  these  legends,  contained  four  principal  rooms:  the  first 
opened  on  the  east  and  was  called  the  Gilded  Chamber ;  its 
walls  were  covered  with  finely  chased  plaques  of  gold  ;  an 
Emerald  and  Turquoise  Room  was  on  the  west,  and  as  its 
name  implies,  the  walls  were  encrusted  with  these  stones  ; 
the  walls  of  the  southern  room  were  ornamented  with  shells 
of  brilliant  colors,  set  in  plaques  of  silver ;  and  lastly,  the 
northern  room  was  of  finely  wrought  red  jasper.  In  another 
palace,  the  walls  of  all  the  rooms  were  hidden  by  tapestries 
of  feathers ;  in  one  the  feathers  were  yellow  ;  in  another, 
blue  taken  from  the  wings  of  a  bird  called  Xeuhtototl.  In 
the  southern  room  the  feathers  were  white,  and  in  that  on 
the  north  they  were  red.8 

Side  by  side  with  the  Toltecs,  in  the  mountainous  regions 
of  the  north  of  Mexico,  lived  numerous  savage  tribes,  in- 

a  Bancroft,  vol.  II.,  p.  265. 

*  We  should  have  remarked  that  the  termination  //,  so  characteristic  of  the 
Nahuatl  language,  is  met  with  again  in  the  Indian  dialects  of  the  Pacific  coast. 
"Sahagun,  "  Hist.  Gen.,"  vol.  III.,  book  X.,  p.  107. 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  279 

eluded  under  the  general  name  of  Chichimecs,  of  which  the 
more  important  were  the  Fames,  Otomes,  Pintos,  Micho- 
caques,  and  Tarascos.  These  people,  chiefly  of  the  Nahuatl 
race,  and  coming  originally  from  the  same  district  as  the 
Toltecs,  were  plunged  in  the  most  complete  barbarism. 
They  despised  all  culture,  and  their  only  occupation  was  to 
hunt  game  in  the  forests  which  covered  a  great  part  of  their 
territory,  even  to  the  summit  of  the  loftiest  mountains.  No 
flesh  came  amiss  to  them ;  they  ate  wolves,  pumas,  weasels, 
moles,  and  mice  ;  failing  them,  lizards,  snakes,  grasshoppers 
and  earth-worms.1 

Spanish  historians  report  that  in  the  sixteenth  century  the 
Chichimecs  wandered  about  completely  naked,  or  wearing 
only  the  skins  of  beasts,  which  they  flung  over  their  shoulders, 
with  the  hair  inside  in  the  winter  and  outside  in  the  summer. 
Most  of  them  lived  in  caves,  or  rock-shelters.  Some  of  them, 
however,  knew  how  to  shelter  themselves,  either  by  placing 
a  roof  of  palm-leaves  upon  posts  sunk  in  the  ground,  or  by 
driving  trunks  of  trees  into  the  earth,  which  were  then 
bound  together  with  creepers.  Where  wood  was  scarce, 
they  replaced  it  with  clay,  dried  in  the  sun  and  cut  into 
adobes.  Inside  these  huts  hung  a  few  reed  mats,  which  with 
gourds  and  very  rude  pottery  made  up  all  their  household 
goods.  On  this  pottery,  however,  a  certain  artistic  feeling 
is  already  discernible,  and  black  figures,  executed  with  taste, 
often  stand  out  upon  a  red  ground. 

Constantly  at  war  with  their  neighbors,  they  often  under- 
took raids,  and  could  repulse  with  energy  every  attack  upon 
their  own  territory.  Their  weapons  were  bows  and  arrows, 
slings,  with  which  they  flung  little  pottery  balls,  which 
caused  dangerous  wounds,  and  above  all,  clubs,  which  were 
formidable  weapons  in  their  hands.* 

The  warriors  wore  a  bone  at  their  waist,  and  on  this  bone, 
in  testimony  of  their  courage,  they  made  a  mark  for  every 

1  Jos.  de  Acosta,  "  Hist.  Natural  y  moral  de  las  Yndias."     Seville,  1580. 
*  Ixtlilxochitl :  "  Hist.  Chic.,"  /.  c.,  p.  214.     Gomara  :  I.e.,  p.  298.    Torque- 
mada :  1.  c.,  p.  38. 


28O  PRE-IIISTORIC  AMERICA. 

enemy  that  they  killed.  The  prisoners  were  treated  with 
unheard-of  cruelty,  and  perished  under  the  most  horrible 
torture.  The  conqueror  often  scalped  them  on  the  field  of 
battle,  and  the  bleeding  scalp  became  a  glorious  trophy. 
The  heads  of  the  victims  were  carried  in  triumph  round  the 
camps,  in  the  midst  of  dances  and  rejoicings  celebrating  the 
victory.  The  horror  and  terror  with  which  the  Toltecs  re- 
garded these  people  can  be  imagined.  They  called  them 
barbarians  and  drinkers  of  blood,  on  account  of  their  taste 
for  the  blood  of  their  victims,  and  their  habit  of  eating 
strips  of  raw  flesh.  This  reputation  survived  their  defeat, 
and  after  the  Spanish  conquest,  Zarfate1  speaks  of  them  as 
the  greatest  homicides,  and  the  greatest  thieves  in  the  whole 
world.  The  very  name  of  Chichimec,  which  is  said  to  be 
derived  from  cJiichi  Jog,  was  a  grave  insult. 

Rude  though  they  were,  the  Chichimecs  had  a  religion. 
They  adored  the  sun  as  the  supreme  god,"  and  they  also 
worshipped  lightning,  represented  by  the  god  Mixcoatl*  (the 
Serpent  of  Clouds),  who,  like  the  antique  Jupiter,  was  fig- 
ured with  thunder-bolts  in  his  hands. 

Nearly  all  these  independent  tribes,  always  at  war  with 
each  other,  obeyed  chiefs  selected  by  themselves.  Some, 
however,  acknowledged  no  authority,  and  merely  elected 
a  warrior  to  lead  them  to  battle.  Still  some  laws  appear 
to  have  been  observed  amongst  these  wild  races :  children 
could  not  marry  without  the  consent  of  their  parents,  and 
the  violation  of  this  rule  involved  the  death  of  those  guilty  of 
it.  Marriage  was  pronounced  null  if,  the  day  after  the  wed- 
ding, the  husband  declared  his  wife  not  to  be  a  virgin. 
Herrera,  moreover,  says  that  the  Chichimecs  could  only  have 
one  wife,  though  it  is  true  that  they  repudiated  her  on  the 

1  Reproduced  by  Alegre,  "Hist,  de  la  Campania  de  Jesus  en  Nueva  Espana." 
Mexico,  1841,  vol.  I.,  p.  281. 

'Alegre,  /.  c. ,  vol.  I.,  p.  279. 

'Also  called  Ixtac  Mixcoatl,  the  white  nebulous  serpent  ;  recent  re- 
searches point  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was  the  same  es  Taras,  the  chief 
god  of  the  Tarascos  ;  or  Comaxtli,  the  god  of  the  Teochichimecs.  Brinton, 
"  The  Myths  of  the  New  World."  New  York.  1868. 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  28 1 

slightest  pretext,  to  replace  her  by  another.  These  wives 
were  practically  slaves;  on  them  fell  all  the  work  of  the 
house,  the  preparation  of  food,  the  weaving  of  cloth,  the 
making  of  mats  and  pottery,  the  felling  of  trees,  and 
the  fetching  of  the  wood  and  water  needed  by  the  whole 
family.  The  cares  of  maternity  made  no  break  in  their 
arduous  labor ;  whilst  they  were  engaged  in  them  they 
merely  hung  a  basket  upon  a  tree,  in  which  they  put  their 
children,  whom  they  often  suckled  till  they  were  six  or 
seven  years  old. 

Such  is  the  picture  given  to  us  by  historians  of  the  barba- 
rians who  were  to  conquer  the  Toltecs.  What  seems  still 
more  difficult  to  believe,  is  that  the  conquerors  at  once 
adopted  the  manners,  customs,  and  social  status  of  the  con- 
quered, and  the  Chichimec  supremacy  was  nothing  more 
than  a  continuation  of  the  Toltec.  Must  we  then  admit 
that,  toward  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  or  the  be- 
ginning of  the  twelfth,  after  unknown  revolutions  and 
struggles,  these  savage  tribes  obtained  the  supremacy,  and  in 
their  turn  dominated  Central  America?  Is  it  not  more 
natural  to  conclude  that  there  is  some  confusion  in  the  ac- 
count of  the  Spanish  chroniclers,  the  sole  sources  of  our  in- 
formation ?  This  confusion  may  be  thus  explained.  The 
name  of  Chichimec  was  given  alike  to  the  barbarous  tribes 
of  the  north  and  to  the  chiefs  of  Tezcuco.  It  might  then 
have  been  these  latter,  allied  perhaps  with  a  few  wilder 
tribes,  who  were  the  true  conquerors  of  the  Toltecs. 

The  culture  of  the  Tezcuans  was  no  less  advanced  than 
that  of  the  nation  they  were  destined  to  reduce  to  sub- 
mission. The  chiefs  of  Tezcuco  are  reported  to  have  been 
as  magnificent  as  those  of  the  Toltecs.  Ixtlilxochitl '  gives 
an  undoubtedly  exaggerated  account  of  the  palaces,  gar- 
dens, and  lakes,  made  at  great  cost,  and  of  the  manage- 
ment of  the  forests  preserved  for  hunting,  which  may  be 
ascribed  to  a  natural  desire  to  magnify  the  importance 
of  his  race  in  a  manner  which  would  compel  the  admir- 

1  "Hist.  Chichimeca."    Kingsborough,  "Ant.  of  Mex.,"  vol.  IX.,  p.  251. 


282  PRE-tilSTORIC  AMERICA. 

ation  of  its  conquerors,  accustomed  as  the  latter  were 
to  kings  and  courts  belonging  to  a  totally  distinct  stage 
of  culture.  He  has  pretended  to  enumerate  the  names 
of  towns  which  had  to  supply  the  service  of  the  ruling 
chief.  Twenty-eight  amongst  them  had  to  furnish  men 
to  take  care  of  the  palace;  five  others,  the  servants  immedi- 
ately attached  to  the  person  of  the  chief ;  whilst  eight 
provinces  sent  gardeners,  foresters  and  laborers.  Tezcuco 
was  built  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Lake  of  Mexico  ;  the 
waters  are  dried  up,  and  the  modern  town  is  several  miles 
off.  But  few  traces  remain  of  its  alleged  grandeur.  Mayer 
speaks  of  substructures  of  adobes,  covering  squares  of  400 
feet.  They  are  supposed  to  be  the  foundations  of  ancient 
pyramids ;  bits  of  pottery',  numerous  idols,  chips  of  obsidian, 
and  other  rubbish,  have  been  picked  up  all  about  them. 
The  power  of  the  Chichimec  chief  who  invaded  the 
country  of  the  Toltecs  is  still  further  illustrated,  if  we  attach 
importance  to  such  evidence  as  we  have  cited,  by  the  num- 
ber of  those  who  followed  him  in  this  expedition.  Accord- 
ing to  the  historian  quoted  above  (pp.  337^375),  Xolotl  had 
under  his  orders  3,202,000  men  and  women,  and  he  is  care- 
ful to  add  that  he  does  not  include  amongst  them  the  chil- 
dren who  accompanied  their  mothers.  .The  absurdity  of  this 
is  obvious.  Torquemada,1  though  he  confesses  that  this 
account  may  appear  exaggerated,  relates  that  the  historic 
paintings  which  are  relied  on  to  atttest  these  facts,  are  sup- 
posed to  enumerate  a  million  warriors,  under  the  order  of 
six  grand  chiefs  and  twenty  thousand  or  even  twenty-two 
thousand  chiefs  of  inferior  rank.  Nothing  can  be  more  ob- 
scure than  the  date  of  this  invasion.  Veytia  ("  Hist.  Ant. 
Mej.,"  vol.  II.,  p.  7)  fixes  the  Chichimec  victory  in  1117; 
Ixtlilxochitl  seems  to  confuse  the  facts,  or  at  least  he  assigns 
to  them  several  different  dates,  varying  from  962  to  1015 
("  Ant.  of  Mex.,"  vol.  IX.,  pp.  208,  337,  395,451).  Clavigero 
speaks  of  1170.  Other  historians  will  have  it  that  the  fall 
of  the  Toltec  league  preceded  the  Chichimec  invasion. 

1  "  Monarquia  Indiana,"  vol.  I.,  p.  44. 


THE   PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  283 

They  differ  as  much  about  the  facts  as  about  the  dates.  In 
truth  the  evidence  throughout  is  more  legendary  than  his- 
torical. 

The  Toltecs,  enervated  by  luxury,  pleasure,  and  the  most 
shameful  debauchery,  decimated  by  pestilental  maladies, 
abandoned  by  the  allies  they  had  oppressed  and  by  their 
own  subjects,  who  in  consequence  of  a  religious  schism  had 
emigrated  in  great  numbers  to  more  favored  regions,  yet 
gave  proof,  in  this  supreme  danger,  of  manly  energy.  Their 
chief  Acxtitl  called  all  his  subjects  to  arms ;  the  old  men 
and  children  took  weapons  in  hand  ;  Xochitl,  mother  of 
the  chief,  is  said  to  have  been  killed  fighting  valiantly  at 
the  head  of  a  legion  of  Amazons.  But  these  efforts  came 
too  late ;  the  Toltecs  were  completely  defeated  and  nearly 
exterminated,  after  repeated  conflicts  lasting  several  days.1 
Tolan  their  capital  was  taken  ;  the  country  submitted  ;  and 
Xolotl  took  the  title  of  Chichimecatl  TecuJitli,  the  great  chief 
of  the  Chichimecs.  His  descendants  added  to  this  pompous 
title  that  of  Huactlatohani,  lord  of  the  world. 

To  confirm  his  power,  he  divided  the  country  into  several 
provinces,  which  he  gave  in  fief  to  his  principal  officers  on 
condition  of  their  subordination  to  him  ;  and  by  a  skilful 
policy  he  planned  that  his  eldest  son  Nopaltzin  should 
marry  a  daughter  of  the  Toltec  ruling  family.9 

It  is  not  our  intention  to  narrate  the  supposed  history  of 
the  Chichimecs.  We  may  mention  among  the  Chichimec 
chiefs  who  succeeded  Xolotl,  his  son  Nopaltzin,  Tlotzin, 
Pochotl,  who  ruled  from  1305  to  1359,  Ixtlilxochitl,  who 
died  about  1419,  Tezozomoc,  who  usurped  the  power  of  the 
son  of  Ixtlilxochitl,  and  reigned  eight  years,  and  lastly 
Maxtla,  who  possessed  himself  of  the  chieftainship  by  the 
murder  of  his  eldest  brother.*  Their  history  is  the  relation 
of  a  succession  of  revolts,  bloody  wars,  conspiracies,  and 

1  We  follow  the  account  given  by  Ixtlilxochitl ;  that  of  Veytia,  "  Hist.  Ant. 
Mej,"  vol.  I.,  p.  302-3)  presents  notable  differences  ;  so  does  that  of  Brasseur 
de  Bourbourg  ("  Hist.  des.  Nat.  Civ.,"  vol.  I.,  p.  405,  etc.). 

1  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  quoted  above,  vol.  I.,  p.  236. 

1  See  Bancroft,  /.  c.,  vol.  V.,  chs.  V.,  VI.,  and  VII. 


284  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

revolutions,  which  was  to  end  in  1431  in  the  triple  alliance  of 
the  Aztecs,  Acolhuas,  and  Tepanecs,  and  then  in  the  ephem- 
eral triumph  of  the  Aztecs  as  conquerors  of  all  their  rivals. 
The  Tepanecs  and  the  Acolhuas  had  been  the  faithful  al- 
lies of  Xolotl  in  his  struggles  with  the  Toltecs,  and  their 
chiefs  took  a  subordinate  place  in  the  new  league.  They 
had  long  been  established  in  Anahuac  when  the  Aztecs 
arrived  there.  Both  had  probably  formed  part  of  some  of 
the  numerous  immigrations  which  succeeded  each  other  in 
Central  America.1  All  these  men  came  from  a  country  to 
which  the  unanimous  accounts  of  the  chroniclers  give  the 
name  of  Aztlan.  Where  was  this  land,  this  officina  gentium, 
which  throughout  more  than  five  centuries  sent  southward 
whole  nations,  all  speaking  the  same  language  ;  practising 
the  same  rights;  accepting  the  same  cosmogony;  all  under 
the  rule  of  sacerdotal  orders  strictly  supervised  by  priests ; 
with  the  same  divisions  of  time,  the  same  hieroglyphical 
paintings,  the  same  taste  for  noting  and  registering  events ; 
and  who  understood  each  other  without  difficulty,  recogniz- 
ing their  common  origin  ?  There  are  few  points  more  ob- 
scure and  more  hotly  contested  than  the  situation  of  Aztlan. 
It  has  been  sought  in  turn  in  California,  Mississippi,  New 
Mexico,  Florida,  Zacatecas,  and  in  yet  other  regions.  All 
these  hypotheses  have  been  brought  forward,  and  there  is 
something  to  be  said  for  them  all.  The  importance  of  the 
question  is  assuredly  considerable,  for,  if  there  be  a  connec- 
tion between  the  Nahuas  and  the  Northern  Indians,  it  is  to 
Aztlan  that  we  must  look  for  it.* 

1  Bancroft,  loc.  fit.  vol.  V.,  p.  305.  F.  von  Hellwald  :  "  The  American 
Migrations,"  Smith.  Con tr.,  1866. 

*Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  ("Hist,  des  Nat.  Civilisees,"  vol.  II.,  p.  292) 
places  Aztlan  in  California  ;  Humboldt  ("Researches  concerning  the  institu- 
tions and  monuments  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  America,"  translated  by 
Helen  Maria  Williams,  1814),  about  42°  north  latitude.  Foster:  "Preh. 
Races,"  p.  340.  Vetancurt  ("Teatro  Mexicano,"  part  II.,  p.  20)  speaks  of 
New  Mexico.  Fontaine  ("  How  the  World  was  Peopled, "p.  149)  looks  upon 
the  earthworks  of  Mississippi  as  witnesses  to  Aztec  migrations.  Pritchard 
("Nat.  Hist,  of  Man,"  vol.  II.,  pp.  514-5)  sees  in  the  Moquis  the  last  de- 
scendants of  the  Atzecs,  Bandelier  says,  in  speaking  of  Chicomoztoc  (the 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  285 

The  Aztecs  had  left  Aztlan  at  the  same  time  as  the  people 
who  had  preceded  them  in  Anahuac ;  but  according  to 
tradition  they  halted  for  a  long  time  at  Chicomoztoc.1  It 
was  not  therefore  until  much  later,  between  1186  and  1194,' 
if  we  adopt  the  date  given  by  the  Codex  Chimalpopoca, 
that  they  established  themselves  at  Chapultepec.  Their 
early  settlement  was  full  of  difficulties  ;  overcome  by  their 
neighbors,  with  whom  they  were  perpetually  at  war,  they 
were  forced  to  leave  the  country  where  they  had  established 
themselves,  and  compelled  to  take  refuge  in  the  midst  of  al- 
most inaccessible  marshes,  dotted  here  and  there  by  a  few 
wretched  islets  of  sand.  It  was  on  one  of  these  islets  that 
they  founded  Tenochtitlan,  or  Mexico.3  Hunting  and  fish- 
ing could  not  long  supply  the  needs  of  a  population  wh'ich 
rapidly  increased.  By  dint  of  hard  work  the  Aztecs 
managed  to  make  gardens  in  the  water  in  which  grew  maize 
and  other  plants.4  Then,  the  water  of  the  lake  being 

seven  caves) :  "  These  caves  are  in  Aztlan,  a  country  which  we  all  know  to  be 
toward  the  north  and  connected  with  Florida."  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum," 
vol.  II.,  p.  95,  etc.).  Clavigero  ("  St.  Ant.  del  Messico,"  vol.  I.,  p.  156) 
mentions  the  Colorado  as  the  stream  that  all  accounts  say  was  crossed  by  the 
emigrants  ;  whilst  Boturini  ("  Idea  de  una  nueva  hist,  general  de  la  America 
Septentrional"  pp.  126-8)  has  it  that  the  Gulf  of  California  is  referred  to. 
Lastly  Bancroft  (quoted  above,  vol.  V.,  p.  322),  who  believes  Aztlan  to  have 
been  in  the  south  near  Anahuac,  concludes  thus  :  "  We  have  no  means  of  de- 
termining, in  a  manner  at  all  satisfactory,  whether  Aztlan  and  Chicomoztoc 
were  in  Central  America  or  in  Zacalecas  and  Jalisco  ;  nor  indeed  of  proving 
that  they  were  not  in  Alaska,  in  New  Mexico,  or  on  the  Mississippi,"  a  remark 
with  which  we  heartily  concur. 

1  Bancroft  gives  the  whole  of  the  march  of  the  Aztecs.  Chicomoztoc  is  sup- 
posed to  be  the  seven  caves  celebrated  in  all  legends.  Generally,  Chicomoztoc 
is  placed  in  the  same  place  as  Aztlan. 

aln  1140  or  in  1189,  according  to  two  different  dates  given  by  Ixtlilxochitl  ; 
in  1245,  according  to  Clavigero  ;  in  1298,  according  to  Veytia,  Gama,  and  Gal- 
latin  ;  in  1331,  according  to  Gondra.  The  margin  as  we  see  is  wide.  The 
Codex  Chimalpopoca  is  dated  May  22,  1538.  Bancroft  may  be  consulted  (/.  c., 
vol.  V.,  p.  192),  who  gives  interesting  details  bearing  upon  the  question. 

'This  settlement  took  place  about  1325.  Duran  cited  by  Bancroft  (/.  c.,  vol. 
I.,  chap.  IV-VI.  ;  Veytia  :  "  Hist.  Ant.  de  Mejico,"  vol.  II.,  p.  156  ;  Torque- 
mada  :  "  Mon.  Ind.,"  vol.  I.,  p.  92,  288,  et  seq.  ;  Ixtlilxochitl :  /.  c.,  vol.  IX., 
p,  461  ;  F.  de  Alvaredo  Tezozomoc,  "Chron.  Mexicana,"  Kingsborough,  vol.  IX. 

4  Bandelier  :  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  II.,  p.  403.      These  gardens 


286  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

brackish,  they  obtained,  by  paying  an  annual  tribute,  the 
right  of  fetching  from  the  shore  the  fresh  water  which  was 
needed  in  their  homes. 

Such  was  the  humble  beginning  of  the  Aztecs  ;  but  their 
subsequent  history  is  even  more  confused  than  that  of  the 
people  of  whom  we  have  been  speaking.  One  of  the  causes 
of  this  confusion  was  the  constant  rivalry  between  the 
two  regions  of  Tenochtitlan  and  Tezcuco,  and  the  want  of 
care  taken  by  the  first  Spanish  chroniclers  in  distinguishing 
between  the  facts  relating  to  each  of  the  two  countries. 

It  seems  that  as  we  approach  the  end  of  this  bloody  era 
tradition  itself  is  effaced.  As  under  the  Chichimec  domina- 
tion we  find  whole  series  of  wars  and  revolts,  of  struggles 
and  submissions.  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  (/.  c.,  vol.  III.,  p. 
194,  et  seq.^)  gives  a  full  account  of  them.  Unfortunately 
he  is  inexact  on  a  multitude  of  points.  The  chief  wars  car- 
ried on  by  the  Aztecs  were  against  the  kingdom  of  Micho- 
acan,  inhabited  by  the  Tarascos,  a  branch  of  the  Toltecs,  on 
the  west  ;  and  against  the  Miztecs  and  Zapotecs  on  the 
south.  In  the  midst  of  this  tumult  the  power  of  the  Aztecs 
was  ever  on  the  increase.  Their  alliance  with  the  Acolhuas  and 
the  Tepanecs,  against  Maxtla,  the  last  Chichimec  chief,  end- 
ing with  his  defeat,  inaugurated  a  new  era  in  their  history. 
After  the  victory  a  confederation  was  formed  between  the 
conquerors.  Nezahualcoyotl,  son  of  Ixtlilxochitl,  from 
whom  Tezozomoc  had  usurped  the  chieftainship,  in  his  turn 
took  the  title  of  Chichimecatl  Tecuhtli.  Tezcuco  was  his 
capital ;  that  of  the  Tepanecs  was  Tlacolpan  ;  and  that  of  the 
Aztecs,  as  we  have  seen,  Tenochtitlan. 

From  this  moment  the  Aztecs  progressed  rapidly ;  from 
the  marshes  where  they  had  found  a  refuge  after  their  first 
disasters,  their  power  spread  to  the  shores  of  the  two  oceans. 
Their  conquests  were  won  by  their  victorious  arms  alone;  no 
town  voluntarily  accepted  their  yoke  ;  no  nation  sought  their 
alliances.  The  people,  were  harshly  oppressed  by  their 

have  been  termed  "  floating"  but  they  were  probably  merely  soft  and  swampy 
islets. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  28? 

foreign  conquerors  and  loaded  with  odious  taxes.  Tribute 
was  paid  in  kind,  and  consisted  of  cereals,  cotton  garments, 
pipes,  rushes,  aromatic  spices,  and  various  other  articles. 
Some  towns  of  the  Pacific  were  compelled  to  send  annually 
4,000  bunches  of  feathers,  200  sacks  of  cacao,  forty  wild-cat 
skins,  and  160  birds  of  a  rare  species.  The  Zapotecs  were 
mulcted  to  the  extent  of  forty  sheets  of  gold,  of  a  fixed 
weight,  and  twenty  sacks  of  cochineal.  Certain  nomad  tribes 
had  to  contribute  jars  filled  with  gold  dust.  The  towns  of 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  sent  20,000  bunches  of  feathers,  six 
emerald  necklaces,  twenty  rings  of  amber  or  gold,  and  16,000 
packages  of  gum.  All  had  to  contribute  to  the  tribute,  and 
those  who  were  too  wretched  to  do  so  were  obliged  to 
furnish  a  certain  number  of  serpents  or  scorpions.  It  is 
alleged  that  Alonso  de  Ojeda  and  Alonso  de  Mata,  men- 
tioned among  the  companions  of  Cortes,  as  the  first  to  enter 
the  so-called  royal  palace  of  Mexico,  noticed  some  carefully 
piled  up  sacks.  They  hastened  to  take  possession  of  them, 
hoping  for  a  rich  booty.  These  bags  were  filled  with  lice, 
and  were  part  of  the  tribute  of  a  province.  Torquemada 
(loc.  cit.,  vol.  i.,  p.  461),  who  is  responsible  for  this  extra- 
ordinary statement,  adds  :  "  Ai  quien  diga,  que  non  eran 
Piojos  sino  Gusanillos  ;  pero  Alonso  de  Ojeda  en  sus  memori- 
ales  lo  certifica  de  vista,  y  lo  mismo  Alonso  de  Mata." 
The  conquered  people,  pillaged  and  oppressed  by  Mexican 
traders,  who  were  very  expert  in  this  kind  of  traffic,  were 
constantly  in  revolt.  Every  fresh  rising  was  quenched  in 
blood,  and  thousands  of  human  victims  perished  on  the  altars 
of  Mexico  in  honor  of  the  victories.  In  reading  these  de- 
tails, we  understand  the  hatred  of  the  vanquished,  and  the 
devotion  manifested  by  the  allies  of  Cortes.* 

Mexico,  the  first  houses  of  which  had  been  a  few  miserable 
reed  or  earth  huts,  grew  with  the  power  of  its  inhabitants, 
and  soon  became  a  town  worthy  of  the  dominion  of  which 

'Tezozomoc  may  also  be  consulted.  "  Cron.  Mex.,"  Kingsborough,  vol.  IX. 
Clavigero:  "  St.  Ant.  del  Messico,"  vol.  I.  p.  275.  Bancroft,  /.  c.  vol.  II.  p. 
233  and  234. 

'Bancroft,  /.  f.,  vol.  V.,  p.  481. 


288  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

it  was  the  capital.1  On  every  side  rose  the  buildings  of  the 
rulers,  and  temples  of  the  native  or  foreign  gods";  for  as  in 
ancient  Rome,  the  divinities  of  the  conquered  people  be- 
came those  of  the  conquerors.  Nor  were  more  useful  works 
wanting.  Viaducts,  supplemented  by  large  bridges  con- 
structed on  scientific  principles,  were  erected  by  the  tribu- 
tary or  allied  tribes,  rendering  communication  easy.*  A 
dyke  seven  or  eight  miles  long,  and,  according  to  different 
accounts,  thirty  to  sixty  feet  wide,  was  intended  to  protect 
the  city  of  Mexico  against  inundations.4  The  inhabitants 
were  supplied  with  water  by  means  of  aqueducts,  and  as 
early  as  1446,  this  water  was  conducted  from  Chapultepec 
to  the  capital  through  earthenware  pipes. 

The  prosperity  of  Tezcuco  was  not  inferior  to  that  of 
Mexico,  and  the  figures  of  two  of  its  rulers  stand  out  to  re- 
lieve the  monotony  of  the  history  of  Anahuac.  Thanks  to 
the  wise  administration  of  Nezahualcoyotl,  Tezcuco  had  be- 
come the  centre  of  the  art  and  culture  of  that  people.6  The 
chief  himself  was  a  distinguished  poet.  Ixtlilxochitl,  his 
descendant  in  the  direct  line,  has  preserved  some  of  his 
poems,8  which  were  still  famous  at  the  time  of  the  conquest. 

1  The  Mexican  chiefs  previous  to  the  Spanish  conquest  were  Itzcoatl  who  died, 
1440  ;  Montezuma  I.  to  1469  ;  Axayacatl  to  1481  ;  Tizoc  to  1486  ;  Ahuizotl 
to  1503  ;  Montezuma  II.  to  1520. 

a  Torquemada  alleges  that  there  were  more  than  forty  thousand  temples  or 
teocallis  in  Mexico. 

*  "  Hay  sus  puentes  de  muy  anchas,  y  muy  grandes  vigas  juntas  y  recias  y 
bien  labradas,  y  tales  que  por  inuchas  dellas  pueden  passar  diez  de  caballo 
juntos  a  la  par."  Cortes  :  "  Cartas,"  p.  203. 

4  Veytia,  vol.  III.,  p.  247.  Torquemada,  vol.  I.,  p.  157.  Clavigero,  vol.  I., 
p.  233.  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  vol  III.,  p.  228. 

6  Sagahun  describes  the  education  given  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
chief.  He  mentions  a  discourse  addressed  by  Nezahualcoyotl  to  his  children, 
remarkable  for  the  elevated  sentiments  displayed  in  it. 

8  Four  odes  are  given  in  Lord  Kingsborough's  collection  (vol.  VIII.,  pp.  110- 
115).  One  is  an  imprecation  against  Tezozomoc,  who  had  usurped  the  throne 
of  Nezahualcoyotl's  ancestors  ;  another  is  the  ode  on  the  vicissitudes  of  life, 
from  which  the  above  quotation  is  taken  ;  the  third,  recited  at  a  banquet,  is  a 
comparison  between  the  chiefs  of  Anahuac  and  precious  stones.  Lastly,  the 
fourth,  celebrates  the  dedication  of  a  royal  palace,  and  enlarges  upon  the  per- 
ishable nature  of  earthly  grandeur.  Bancroft,  (vol.  II,,  p.  494)  gives  an  Eng- 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTKAL   AMERICA.  289 

We  will  only  quote  one  strophe,  from  an  ode  on  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  life,  in  which  the  chief,  speaking  of  himself,  writes: 
"  No,  thou  shalt  not  be  forgotten  ;  no,  the  good  which  thou 
hast  done  shall  not  be  lost  unto  men  ;  for  is  not  the  throne 
which  thou  occupiest  the  gift  of  the  matchless  God,  the  pow- 
erful creator  of  all  things,  who  makes  and  who  brings  down 
chiefs  and  rulers  ?  "  We  may  add  that  the  succeeding  strophes 
express  similar  sentiments,  which  it  seems  strange  to  find  in 
a  man  in  the  state  of  culture  of  the  Mexicans ;  they  breathe 
disdain  of  that  pomp  of  which  the  chief  had  learned  to  feel  the 
vanity;  if  they  are  genuine,  they  would  justify  to  a  certain 
degree  the  assertion  of  the  Spanish  historian,  who  tells  us 
that  Nezahualcoyotl  worshipped  one  invisible  god,  the  ap- 
pearance of  whom  it  was  impossible  for  mortal  to  conceive. 

Nezahualcoyotl  died  about  1472  ;  he  left  only  one  legiti- 
mate son,  but  more  than  a  hundred  children  by  his  concu- 
bines ;  that  son — Nezahuapilli — succeeded  him  ;  he  proved 
himself,  like  his  father,  skilful  in  war,  just,  always  severe, 
often  inexorable,  merciful  toward  the  weak,  generous  toward 
his  subjects.  Like  his  father,  he  was  addicted  to  pleasure, 
and  he  is  said  to  have  had  in  his  palace  more  than  two  thou- 
sand concubines.  He  had  also  several  legitimate  wives. 
The  daughter  of  Axacayatl,  of  whom  we  shall  speak,  was 
among  the  number,  as  were  three  nieces  of  Tizoc. 

Among  his  wives  was  a  daughter  of  Axacayatl,  ruler  of 
Mexico  ;  she  was  very  young,  and  a  private  palace  had  been 
assigned  to  her  until  the  time  when  the  marriage  should  be 
consummated.  She  was  noted  for  her  beauty,  and  the  king 
paid  her  frequent  visits  ;  each  time  he  noticed,  in  a  room 
where  he  was,  a  great  number  of  statues  covered  with  rich 
robes  ;  but,  not  wishing  to  thwart  his  wife  in  her  tastes,  he 
made  no  remark  upon  them.  One  day  he  saw  the  queen's 
ring  on  the  finger  of  one  of  his  principal  courtiers.  His  sus- 
picions were  awakened,  and  the  same  evening  he  paid  a  visit 

lish  translation  of  two  of  these  odes.  F.  W.  v.  MUller  ("  Keisen  in  den  Ver- 
einigten  Staten,  Canada,  und  Mexico,"  Leipzig,  1864,  vol.  III.,  pp.  128-141)  re- 
publishes  two  other  odes  previously  unknown. 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

to  the  palace  of  Chalchiuhuenetzin.  The  queen,  according 
to  the  asseverations  of  her  attendants,  was  asleep.  Neza- 
huapilli  went  into  her  room  ;  a  lay  figure,  dressed  in  the 
queen's  clothes,  occupied  her  place  in  the  royal  bed.  The 
king,  whose  suspicions  were  justly  confirmed,  pursued  his 
researches,  and  in  a  secret  part  of  the  palace  he  saw  his 
young  wife,  completely  naked,  dancing  with  three  of  his 
principal  officers.  The  statues  were  those  of  her  lovers, 
and  by  a  strange  whim  she  had  had  them  represented  in 
the  costume  which  they  had  worn  the  first  time  they  had 
enjoyed  her  favors.  The  punishment  was  terrible ;  not- 
withstanding the  respect  due  to  her  rank,  she  was  strangled ; 
and  with  her  perished  her  lovers,  the  women  in  her  ser- 
vice, and  more  than  two  thousand  persons  convicted  of 
complicity,  or  of  even  the  slightest  knowledge  of  her 
licentiousness.' 

This  is  not  the  only  example  of  severity  which  legend 
narrates  of  Nezahualpilli.  His  eldest  son  had  shown  re- 
markable talents  as  a  general.  He  was  the  favorite  of  the 
chief,  who  conferred  upon  him  the  title  of  Tlatecatl,  the 
greatest  honor  which  a  Tezcuan  could  receive.  One  day  he 
was  accused  of  having  spoken  too  freely  to  one  of  his  father's 
concubines.  The  chief  examined  the  guilty  persons,  and  the 
fact  being  proved,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  put  into  practice  a 
law  which  he  had  made  ;  he  condemned  his  son  to  death, 
and  caused  him  to  be  executed  in  spite  of  the  supplications 
of  his  courtiers."  Another  of  his  sons  had  begun  the  build- 
ing of  a  palace,  without  having  obtained  authority  for  so 
doing,  or  having  distinguished  himself  in  war  by  any  of 
those  actions  which  alone  gave  the  right  to  possess  a  sep- 
arate palace  ;  the  chief  caused  him  also  to  be  executed. 
Some  years  afterward,  Tezozomoc,  father-in-law  of  Monte- 
zuma,  was  accused  of  adultery  ;  the  judges,  out  of  regard  for 
his  rank,  had  only  condemned  him  to  banishment.  Neza- 

1  Torquemada,  vol.  I.,  p.  184.  Ixtlilxochitl :  "Hist.  Chichemec,"  loe.  cit., 
pp.  265,  267,  271. 

*  Torquemada  :  "  Mon.  Ind.,"  vol.  I.,  p.  165. 


THE   PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  29 1 

hualpilli  ordered  him  to  be  strangled,  thereby  greatly  irritat- 
ing the  chiefs  who  were  his  allies. 

The  last  years  of  the  life  of  the  ruler  of  Tezcuco  were  sad. 
A  prophecy,  in  which  the  Tezcuans  placed  great  confidence, 
gave  out  that  the  god  Quetzacoatl  was  to  return  to  the 
earth,  in  the  same  form  as  at  his  first  appearance.  The  date, 
fixed  by  this  prophecy,  arrived,  and  coincided  with  the  dis- 
embarkation of  the  Spaniards.  The  superstitious  mind  of 
the  chief  was  singularly  impressed  by  this  fact.  From  that 
time  he  shut  himself  up  in  his  house,  occupied  himself  no 
more  with  public  affairs,  and  even  refused  to  receive  those 
to  whom  he  had  entrusted  the  management  of  affairs.  His 
death,  now  supposed  to  have  been  in  1515,  was  long  un- 
known, and  a  legend  which  grew  up  round  his  name  has 
been  perpetuated  to  the  present  day ;  the  Tezcuans  im- 
agined that  death  could  not  touch  him,  and  that  he  had  re- 
tired to  Amaquemecan,  the  land  of  his  ancestors.1 

The  death  of  Nezahualpilla,  and  the  quarrels  which  arose 
between  his  sons,  promoted  the  ambitious  schemes  of 
Montezuma.  He  was  for  a  short  time  undisputed  master  of 
Anahuac,  but  fortune  soon  abandoned  him  ;  he  knew  neither 
how  to  fight  the  Spanish,  to  treat  with  them,  or  to  ensure 
the  devotion  of  his  own  people.  The  empire  of  the  Aztecs 
was  doomed,  and  Anahuac,  like  the  whole  of  the  New 
World,  was  to  belong  to  other  races,  for  whom  by  unfathom- 
able decrees  the  future  of  America  was  reserved. 

So  far  as  we  can  judge  at  the  present  day,  religious  ideas 
were  met  with  amongst  all  the  American  races,  but  with  the 
most  striking  contrasts.  Some  tribes  had  not  got  beyond 
fetichism,  the  most  degraded  and  primitive  form  of  wor- 
ship. Idolatry,  which  prevailed  amongst  the  nations  of 
Central  America,  was  a  higher  form  ;  the  savage  adored  the 
waves  of  the  sea,  the  trees  of  the  forest,  the  waters  of  the 
spring,  the  stars  of  the  firmament,  the  stones  beneath  his 

1  Torquemada,  vol.  I.,  p.  216.  Ixtlilxochitl  :  "  Hist.  Chic.,"  pp.  282,  388, 
410.  Tezozomoc,  Kingsborough,  vol.  IX.,  p.  178,  Fray  Diego  Duran  places 
his  death  in  1509,  "  Hist,  de  las  Indias  de  la  Nueva  Espana,"  written  between 
1567  and  1581,  and  published  at  Mexico  by  D.  Ramirez  in  1867. 


292 


P RE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


feet  ;  he  invested  with  supernatural  power  the  first  object  to 
strike  his  eyes  or  impress  his  imagination.  The  idolater  is 
superior  to  the  fetich  worshipper ;  he  adores  the  god  of  the 
sun,  of  the  sea,  of  the  forest,  of  the  spring ;  he  often  clothes 
this  god,  before  whom  he  trembles,  with  a  human  form  (figs. 
114,  115,  116),  and  attributes  to  him  the  passions  of  his  own 
heart.  Monotheism,  from  a  purely  philosophical  point  of 
view,  is  a  great  advance.  It  has  been  said  that  the  Aztecs 
adored  an  invisible  god,  Teotl,  the  supreme  master,  but  this 


FIG.  116. — Idol  in  terra-cotta. 

fact  is  disputed,  and  every  thing  goes  to  prove  on  the  contrary 
that  polytheism  existed  amongst  them,  and  a  very  inferior 
polytheism,  too,  to  that,  for  instance,  which  history  records 
among  the  Egyptians  or  the  Greeks.1  The  number  of  sec- 
ondary divinities  was  very  considerable  ;  every  tribe,  every 
family,  every  profession  had  its  patrons,  and  thought  to  do 
honor  to  its  gods  by  severe  fasts,  prolonged  chastity,  baths- 
purifications,  and  often  also  cruel  mortifications. 

1  "  Their  mythology,  as  far  as  we  know  it,  presents  a  great  number  of  uncon- 
nected gods,  without  apparent  system  or  unity  of  design."  Gallatin,  "Am. 
Ant.  Soc.  Trans.,"  vol.  I.,  p.  352. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  293 

Before  celebrating  the  feast  of  the  god  Camaxtli,  for 
instance,  the  priests  were  bound  to  rigorously  abstain  from 
indulgence  for  a  period  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  days ;  and 
during  that  time  they  pierced  their  tongues  with  little 
pointed  sticks  having  about  the  diameter  of  a  quill. 

Among  all  the  tribes  of  the  Nahuatl  race  religious  holi- 
days were  frequent,  each  of  them  being  accompanied  by  hu- 
man sacrifices.  On  such  occasions,  in  accordance  with  a 
strictly  observed  rite,  infants  at  the  breast  were  offered  to 
the  god  of  rain ;  these  infants  were  sacrificed  on  high  moun- 
tains, or  thrown  into  the  lake  which  washes  the  city  of 


FIG.  117. — Obsidian  knife  used  by  the  sacrificing  priests  (Trocadero  Museum). 

Mexico.  In  the  following  month  sacrifices  no  less  bloody 
were  required  by  the  god  of  the  goldsmiths.  Hundreds  of 
miserable  captives  were  successively  led  to  the  chief  priest ; 
the  breast  was  cut  open  with  an  obsidian  knife  (figs.  117,  1 18)  ; 
the  heart  was  torn  out  and  offered,  still  palpitating,  to  the 
idol.  At  other  festivals,  if  they  can  be  so  called,  the  skin  of 
the  unfortunate  sufferer  was  stripped  off  ;  gladiators  clothed 
themselves  in  it  for  mock  combats ;  or  in  an  outbreak  of  zeal 
priests  prided  themselves  in  wearing  the  spoils  (figs.  119 
and  120)  until  the  skins  fell  into  rags.  "  They  smelt  like 
dead  dogs,"  adds  Sahagun,  from  whom  we  take  this 
detail. 


294 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


The  hideous  trophy  was  then  hung  up  in  the  temple 
of  Yapico,  or,  if  it  had  belonged  to  a  prisoner  taken  in  war, 
returned  to  the  offerer  of  the  victim.  The  rejoicings  in 
honor  of  Mixcoatl,  the  god '  of  hunting  and  thunder,  were 
inaugurated  by  battues,  in  which  animals — such  as  deer, 
coyotes,  hares,  rabbits — fell  beneath  the  arrows  of  the 
devotees.  Then  came  the  inevitable  human  sacrifices ;  a 


FIG.  118. — -Sacrificial  collar  (Trocadero  Museum). 

great  fire  was  lighted,  into  which  the  men  threw  pipes  or 
vases  (fig.  121),  the  women  distaffs,  in  the  hope  that  the  god 
would  repay  their  offerings  with  interest  in  the  life  awaiting 
them  beyond  the  grave. a 

1  Perhaps  we  should  say  the  goddess  ;  this  point  has  been  very  much 
disputed. 

*  Bancroft  (vol.  II.,  chap.  IX.,  and  vol.  III.,  pp.  355-412)  gives  a  very  exact 
account  of  these  celebrations,  to  which  we  refer  those  who  wish  to  know  more 
about  them. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  295 

On  the  day  consecrated  to  Xuihtecutli,  the  god  of  fire,  the 
captives  were  carried  in  triumph,  on  the  shoulders  of  the 
priests,  to  the  platform  from  which  the  teocalli  rose,  and 
then  flung  into  a  red-hot  furnace.  From  every  side  crowds 
gathered  to  gloat  over  the  agony  of  the  unfortunate  wretches ; 
and  dances,  rejoicings,  and  feasts  in  which  human  flesh  was 
the  chief  dainty,  ended  the  day.  The  most  delicate  morsels 
were  reserved  for  the  priests.  Part  of  the  body  was  given 


FIG.  1 19. — Mexican  carving  representing  an  Aztec  priest  clothed  in  a  human 

skin. 

back  to  the  person  furnishing  the  victim.  Sahagun  tells  us 
that  this  meat  was  cooked  with  hominy.  The  dish  was 
called  Tlacatlaotli,  and  the  master  of  the  slave  sacrificed  was 
not  allowed  to  eat  it,  for  the  slave  was  looked  upon  as  one 
of  the  family. 

At  Tlascala,  one  month  of  the  year  was  dedicated  to  sen- 
sual pleasures.  It  was  inaugurated  by  the  sacrifice  of  nu- 
merous virgins.  At  other  times,  a  young  man  and  a  young 
girl,  chosen  on  account  of  their  beauty,  were  maintained  for 


296 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


a  whole  year  in  royal  luxury,  and  then  led  to  the  sacrifice  as 
victims  acceptable  to  the  gods. 

Such  were  the  religious  rites  which  were  observed  every 
year.  There  were  also  extraordinary  rites,  on  the  occasion 
of  victory,  the  accession  of  a  ruler,  or  the  dedication  of  a 
temple.  The  last  event  was  frequent  in  Mexico,  and  also 


FlG.  120. — Vase  used  in  sacrifices,  the  head  representing  that  of  a  priest  cov- 
ered with  human  skin.     From  the  Trocadero  Museum. 

the  occasion  for  a  sacrifice  of  hecatombs  of  victims.  If  the 
Aztecs  were  visited  by  a  defeat,  a  pestilential  malady,  a  fam- 
ine, or  an  earthquake,  the  people  eagerly  offered  fresh  sacri- 
fices to  appease  the  anger  of  the  gods.  The  dedication  by 
Ahuizotl  of  the  great  temple  of  Huitzilopochtli,1  in  1487, 

Bancroft's  text  is  as  follows:     "Native  Races,"  vol.  III.,   p.   288,289. 
"  Huitzilopochtli,  Huitziloputzli,  or  Vitziliputzili,  was  the  god  of  war,  and  the 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  297 

is  alleged  to  have  been  celebrated  by  the  butchery  of  72,344 
victims ; l  the  priests  were  wearied  with  striking,  and  had  to 
be  successively  replaced  ;  but  the  people  did  not  tire  of  the 
frightful  butchery  ;  they  responded  by  exclamations  of  joy 
to  the  groans  of  the  dying.3  Under  Montezuma  II.,  twelve 
thousand  captives  are  said  to  have  perished  at  the  inaugura- 
tion of  a  mysterious  stone,  brought  to  Mexico  at  great  ex- 
pense, and  destined  to  form  the  sacrificial  altar,8  but  fortu- 

especially  national  god  of  the  Mexicans.  Some  said  that  he  was  a  purely 
spiritual  being,  others  that  a  woman  had  borne  him  after  miraculous  conception. 
This  legend,  following  Clavigero,  ran  as  follows  :  In  the  ancient  city  of  Tula 
lived  a  most  devout  woman,  Coatlicne  by  name.  Walking  one  day  in  the  tem- 
ple, as  her  custom  was,  she  saw  a  little  ball  of  feathers  floating  down  from 
heaven,  which,  taking  without  thought,  she  put  into  her  bosom.  The  walk 
being  ended,  however,  she  could  not  find  the  ball,  and  wondered  much,  all  the 
more  that  soon  after  this  she  found  herself  pregnant.  She  had  already  many 
children,  who  now,  to  avert  this  dishonor  of  their  house,  conspired  to  kill  her  ; 
at  which  she  was  sorely  troubled.  But,  from  the  midst  of  her  womb  the  god 
spoke  :  '  Fear  not,  O  my  mother,  for  this  danger  will  I  turn  to  our  great  honor 
and  glory.'  And  lo,  Huitzilopochtli,  perfect  as  Pallas  Athena,  was  instantly 
born,  springing  up  with  a  mighty  war  shout,  grasping  the  shield  and  the  glitter- 
ing spear.  His  left  leg  and  his  head  were  adorned  with  plumes  of  green  ;  his 
face,  arms,  and  thighs  barred  terribly  with  lines  of  blue.  He  fell  upon  the  un- 
natural children,  slew  them  all,  and  endowed  his  mother  with  their  spoils.  And 
from  that  day  forth  his  names  were  Tezahuitl,  Terror,  and  Tetzauhteotl,  Ter- 
rible God." 

1  Recent  researches  justify  us  in  believing  that  the  number  of  the  victims 
has  been  greatly  exaggerated  by  the  Spanish  historians.  Admitting  this  exagger- 
ation, which  seems  to  us  necessary,  it  is  probable  that  only  in  the  interior  of 
Africa  could  such  wholesale  slaughter  as  really  occurred  in  Mexico  be  paralleled. 

1  Torquemada,  vol.  I.,  p.  186.     Vetancurt :     "  Teatro  Mex.,"  vol.  II.,  p.  37. 

'  Sacrificial  altars  may  be  classed  under  three  different  types :  (i)  the 
Tehcatl,  generally  of  obsidian  or  serpentine,  and  of  convex  form,  so  that  the 
breast  of  the  victim  is  placed  in  such  a  position  as  to  facilitate  the  task  of  the 
sacrificing  priest.  "The  height  of  the  altar,"  says  Duran  ("Hist,  de  las 
Yndias  de  Nueva  Espafla  "),  reached  to  a  man's  waist,  and  its  length  might  be 
eight  feet.  (2)  the  Temalacatl,  a  stone  of  cylindrical  form,  to  which  was  bound 
the  poor  wretch,  who  had  to  show  his  courage  by  defending  himself  from  his 
assailants  with  the  help  of  nothing  but  a  shield.  As  soon  as  an  arrow  struck 
him,  he  was  taken  to  the  Tehcatl  and  his  heart  at  once  plucked  out  by  the  sacri- 
ficing priest.  (3)  the  Cuauhxicalli,  a  concave  stone  with  a  basin  in  the  centre, 
in  which  the  blood  was  collected.  It  is  to  this  last  type  that  belongs  the  cele- 
brated stone  discovered  in  Mexico  in  1791.  "  Ann.  del  Museo  Nacional," 
Mexico,  1877  and  1878. 


298  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

nately  the  end  of  these  sacrifices  was  approaching;  in  1518, 
when  Juan  de  Grijalvawas  disembarking  on  the  coast,  where 
Vera  Cruz  now  stands,  numerous  prisoners  were  being  immo- 
lated in  honor  of  the  dedication  of  the  Temple  of  Coatlan.1 
This  was  the  last  of  these  horrible  scenes ;  the  Spanish  con- 
querors at  once  abolished  them. 

In  addition  to  the  extraordinary  sacrifices  which  we  have 
described,  the  alleged  number  of  victims  who  perished  at 
the  annual  saturnalia  passes  all  belief.  Zumarraga,  the  first 
bishop  of  Mexico,  in  a  letter  dated  June  12,  1531,  estimates 

it  at  no  less  than  twenty  thou- 
sand ;  and  Gomara a  brings  it 
up  even  to  fifty  thousand.  These 
numbers,  which  are  contradict- 
ed by  Las  Casas,  in  his  cele- 
brated treatise,3  are  without 
doubt  most  grossly  exaggerat- 
ed ;  but  certain  facts  remain  un- 
deniable, which  show  that  the 
Aztecs  had  remained  sanguinary 
and  barbarous  in  spite  of  their 
apparent  culture. 
FIG.  121. — Vase  found  in  the  island  The  hope  or  expectation  of 

of  Los  Sacrificios.  IT      u  j    ±1-  u          •   ^ 

a  life  beyond  the  tomb  exists 

amongst  all  human  races.  Man,  however  degraded  he  is 
supposed  to  be,  shrinks  from  the  thought  of  complete  anni- 
hilation, and  aspires  to  a  happier  life  than  that  he  is  leading. 
Before  the"  introduction  of  Christianity,  the  conception  of 
this  life  was  one  of  purely  material  happiness,  which  varied 
according  to  the  degr&e  of  culture.  The  Greeks  dreamt  of 
purer  joys  in  Elysium  than  the  sensual  Mussulman  in  the 
arms  of  his  houris,  or  the  Scandinavian  Viking  in  the  midst 
of  perpetual  feasts.  With  the  savage  the  idea  of  a  future 
life  is  weak;  his  notions  of  the  past  and  of  the  future  are  so 

1  Torquemada,  /.  c.,  vol.  I.,  p.  186.     Vetancurt,  /.  c.,  vol.  II.,  p.  46.     Veytia: 
"Hist.  Ant.  de  Mejico,"  vol.  III.,  p.  476. 
1 "  Hist.  Gen.  de  las  Indias."    Anvers,  1554. 
111  Hist.  Apol.  de  las  Indias  Occidentales,"  Kingsborough,  vol.  VIII, 


THE   PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  299 

confused  and  vague  that  it  is  difficult  to  make  out  his  real 
impressions. 

Of  one  thing  we  may  feel  certain,  that  in  America,  as 
among  the  nations  of  the  Old  World,  these  notions  varied  in 
different  tribes.  Some  of  those  of  the  Pacific  included  the 
idea  of  retribution  in  the  future  life ;  others  believed  that 
man  was  born  anew  from  his  ashes,  to  pass  again  through 
the  same  phases  which  he  had  already  traversed,  but  the 
remembrance  of  which  was  forever  effaced  from  his  mind. 
In  many  places  we  meet  with  the  idea  of  transmigration. 
The  Tlascallas  of  the  Nahuatl  race  were  convinced  that  the 
social  hierarchy  would  be  perpetuated  beyond  the  tomb,  the 
common  people  being  transformed  into  insects,  the  chiefs 
into  birds.  The  ideas  of  the  Aztecs  were  loftier ;  they  ad- 
mitted a  series  of  gradations  in  the  happiness  reserved  for 
men.  Warriors  slain  in  battle  were  immediately  to  inhabit 
the  house  of  the  sun  ;  more  obscure  folk  would  have  less 
brilliant  homes  in  the  various  stars  peopling  the  firmament. 
It  seems,  however,  that  this  was  but  a  transitional  state,  a 
limbo  where  the  dead  waited  before  arriving  at  their  final 
destination.  It  lasted  four  years,  and  throughout  that  time 
the  parents  and  friends  were  bound  to  offer  meat,  wines, 
flowers,  and  perfumes  to  the  dead,  and  to  do  honor  to  his 
memory  by  feasts  and  dances.1  These  rites  were  observed 
in  the  two  months  of  Tlaxochimalco  and  Xocotlhuezin.  The 
first  was  sacred  to  children,  the  second  to  chiefs  and  warriors 
killed  in  battle. 

The  same  ideas  are  met  with  in  all  tribes  of  Nahuatl 
origin,  and  are  naturally  reflected  in  the  ceremonies  observed 
in  obsequies.  Amongst  the  Aztecs,  when  a  chief  died,  the 
body  was  covered  with  mantles  richly  embroidered  and 
decked  with  precious  stones.  While  one  of  the  attendants 
was  dressing  the  body  others  were  cutting  up  bits  of  paper, 
taking  care  to  give  to  each  one  a  particular  form,  and  pla- 
cing them  on  the  body.  A  priest  poured  water  upon  the 
head  of  the  deceased,  repeating  the  words  sacred  to  the 

'Bancroft,  /.  c.,  vol.  II.,  page  618. 


300  P%E-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

funeral  rite ' ;  after  which  he  presented  the  corpse  with 
various  papers.  "  With  this,"  he  said  to  him,  "thou  wilt  be 
admitted  to  cross  the  defile  between  the  two  mountains; 
with  this  other,  thou  wilt  avoid  the  great  serpent ;  with  this 
third,  thou  wilt  put  to  flight  the  alligator ;  with  this  fourth, 
thou  wilt  successfully  cross  the  eight  great  deserts  and  the 
eight  hills."  The  mantles  were  intended  to  protect  the 
dead  from  the  winds,  as  cutting  as  obsidian,  which  he  would 
meet  with  by  the  way.  A  little  red-haired  dog  was  then 
killed ;  a  leash  of  cotton  was  put  round  his  neck,  and  he 
was  buried  near  the  deceased.  This  little  dog  had  the  im- 
portant duty  of  guiding  his  master  and  helping  him  to 
cross  the  Chicunahuapan,  or  nine  torrents  ;  it  is  not  difficult 
to  see  in  this  an  allusion  to  the  nine  firmaments  in  which 
souls  were  to  sojourn  during  their  successive  migrations.1 

Slaves  and  concubines  were  generally  immolated  at  the 
funeral  of  a  chief  ;  their  duty  was  to  serve  him  during  the 
formidable  passage  from  one  firmament  to  another.  At  the 
obsequies  of  the  Chichimec  rulers,  the  guardian  of  the  do- 
mestic idols  was  the  first  victim  sacrificed.  Amongst  the 
Miztecs,  who  inhabited  the  present  province  of  Oajaca,  two 
male  slaves  and  three  women  were  sacrificed,  who  had  previ- 
ously been  stupefied  by  narcotic  drinks.  The  bodies  were 
deposited  in  the  heart  of  a  forest,  and,  when  possible,  in  the 
recesses  of  a  cave. 

Burgoa,  writing  two  centuries  ago,3  speaks  of  having  seen 
several  of  these  burying-places.  Numerous  skeletons  cov- 
ered with  trinkets,  and  gold  or  silver  ornaments,  lay  in 
niches  hewn  out  of  the  walls  of  the  cave.  Here  and  there 
smaller  niches  were  reserved  to  the  guardian  gods  of  the 
dead,  and  their  statues  were  still  in  existence  at  the  time  of 
the  explorations  of  Burgoa.  Quite  recently,  in  the  RioNayas 
vally,  in  the  province  of  Durango,  a  cave  of  considerable 

'Brasseurde  Bourbourg,  "  Hist,  des  Nat.  Civilisees,"  vol.  III.,  p.  569. 

s  Torquemada  :  "  Mon.  Ind.,"  vol.  II.,  p.  527.  Clavigero  :  "  St.  Ant.  del 
Messico,"  vol.  II.,  p.  94. 

*  "  Geografica  descripcion  de  la  parte  septentrionnale  del  Polo  Artico  de  la 
America."  Oajaca,  Mexico,  1674,  2  vols. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  3O1 

extent,  has  been  discovered  in  which  thousands  of  mummies, 
not  resembling  the  Indians  of  the  present  day,  slept  their 
last  sleep.  Each  mummy  was  covered  with  a  mantle  of 
richly-dyed  agave  leaves.  The  bodies  were  in  a  remarkable 
state  of  preservation ;  the  flesh  was  unshrivelled,  and  the 
hair  was  silky.  No  metal  object  was  discovered  in  the  re- 
searches made  which  is  the  only  indication  we  have  of  the 
antiquity  of  this  sepulchre.1 

In  other  cases  costly  monuments  were  dedicated  to  the 
dead.  It  was  thus  with  the  great  pyramid  of  Mexico,  de- 
stroyed by  the  Spaniards,  which  was  said  to  have  been 
erected  to  receive  the  bodies  of  the  chiefs.  What  is  more 
certain  is,  that  the  Conquistadores  found  treasures  in  it. 

For  the  common  people  the  funeral  ceremonies  were 
necessarily  more  simple;  the  rite  was,  however,  always 
faithfully  followed.  The  body,  washed  three  times  with 
aromatic  waters,  was  successively  dressed  in  ordinary  clothes, 
bright  red  clothes  and  feathers,  and  black  clothes  and  feath- 
ers. A  stone  (tentell),  of  which  we  do  not  know  the  mean- 
ing, was  placed  between  the  lips  of  the  dead.  Papers,  regu- 
lar passports  for  the  other  life,  were  placed  by  him  with 
liturgical  words.  By  his  side  was  deposited  a  jar  filled  with 
water,  a  dog — a  companion  indispensable  to  the  safety  of 
the  journey, — the  weapons  or  implements  used  in  life ;  a 
hatchet  for  a  soldier,  a  spade  for  a  laborer,  a  spindle  or  a 
broom  for  a  woman.  The  corpse  was  then  covered  with  a 
mantle  symbolical  of  the  patron  of  the  commune  to  which 
the  deceased  had  belonged,  or  even,  if  we  can  trust  the 
Spanish  writers,  of  the  god  of  the  vices  the  deceased  had  in- 
dulged in  during  life,  or  of  the  mode  of  the  death  which  he 
had  met."  Thus  the  soldier  was  dressed  in  the  mantle  ap- 
propriate to  the  god  of  war ;  the  merchant  in  that  of  the 
god  of  commerce  ;  the  drunkard  in  that  of  the  god  of  wine  ; 

'"  Proc.  Anthr.  Soc.  of  Washington,"  1879-1880. 

"  Gomara  :  "Hist.  Ant.  de  Mexico,"  £01.309.  "  Vestivano  lo  d'un  abito 
corrispondente  alia  sua  condizione,  alle  sue  facolta  ed  alle  circonstanze  della 
sua  morte,"  Clavigero.  loc.  cit.,  vol.  II.,  p.  39. 


3O2  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

the  drowned,  in  that  of  the  presiding  gods  of  the  flood ;  the 
adulterer,  in  the  mantle  consecrated  to  the  god  of  sensual 
pleasures, — and  when  all  was  thus  prepared,  the  parents  and 
friends  brought  their  offerings.  These  offerings  consisted 
of  flowers,  food,  clothing,  or  implements,  which  had  to  be 
renewed  several  days  in  succession.  The  dominant  idea  of 
these  rites  was  the  desire  of  assuring  to  the  deceased  an  ex- 
istence resembling  that  which  he  had  had  on  earth.  He 
was  finally  borne  to  his  last  resting-place,  a  cave,  or  to  a  yet 
more  simple  grave  dug  in  the  ground. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  give  even  a  rapid  summary  of  the 
funeral  customs  observed  in  regions  of  so  vast  an  extent ; 
these  customs  varied  in  every  nation,  in  every  tribe.  Some 
of  the  Chichimecs,  after  burying  their  dead,  gave  themselves 
up  to  dances  and  feasts,  which  often  lasted  many  days.1 
Near  Tabasco,  Grijalva  discovered  the  skeletons  of  a  young 
boy  and  a  young  girl,  wrapped  in  cotton  cloths  and  covered 
with  trinkets.  These  bodies  had  merely  been  laid  in  the 
sand  of  the  shore.2  At  Yucatan  the  dead  were  embalmed, 
the  priests  taking  out  the  entrails,  and  placing  them  in  large 
amphorae,  ornamented  sometimes  with  human  and  some- 
times with  animals'  heads.  In  Coazacoalco,  to  give  only  one 
example,  bones  stripped  of  their  flesh  were  put  in  a  basket 
and  placed  on  the  top  of  a  tree  near  the  former  home  of  the 
deceased,  doubtless  so  that  he  might  be  able  to  find  these 
bones  more  easily  in  his  successive  migrations.8 

Cremation  dates  from  the  time  of  the  ancient  nomad 
tribes,  who  could  by  this  means  more  easily  carry  about  the 
remains  of  their  ancestors.  The  custom  lasted  for  many 
centuries,  and,  at  the  arrival  of  the  Conquistadores,  it  was 
still  in  certain  places  an  honor  rendered  to  chiefs  and  men  of 
note.  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  says  that  cremation  was  in 
use  among  the  Toltecs  ;  Torquemada  and  Clavigero  says  the 
same  of  the  Chichimecs  ;  and  Veytia,  in  his  "  Historia  An- 

1  Sahagun  :  "  Hist.  gen.  de  las  cosas  de  Nueva  Espano,"  vol.  III.,  book  X., 
p.  119. 

*  "  Chronica  de  la  Orden  deN.  P.  S.  Aug."  Mexico,  1624. 
1  Herrera,  loc.  cit.,  decade  IV.,  book  IX,,  chap.  VII. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

tigua  de  Mejico,"  says  that  the  bodies  of  the  first  Aztec 
kings  were  burned. 

The  Spanish  historians  have  preserved  an  account  of  the 
so-called  royal  funerals.1  The  body,  covered  with  sumptuous 
garments,  was  seated  on  a  lofty  throne,  and  the  chief  nota- 
bles came  in  turn  to  pay  their  respects,  as  they  had  done 
when  he  was  still  alive.  They  dwelt  upon  his  virtues,  upon 
the  grief  his  death  caused  the  people,  and  they  prayed  him 
to  accept  the  customary  presents.  Each  notable  was  bound 
to  offer  ten  slaves,  and  a  hundred  mantles  of  magnificence 
corresponding  to  his  standing;  the  common  people  then 
advanced,  bringing  less  costly  offerings  ;  lastly  came  the  turn 
of  the  women,  and  while  they  were  presenting  to  the  defunct 
the  food  he  had  preferred,  his  oldest  followers  intoned  the 
Miccacuicatl,  or  funeral  chant.  This  was  the  signal  for  hu- 
man sacrifices,  the  necessary  accompaniment  of  the  cere- 
mony. On  the  fifth  day  after  death,  a  procession  was 
formed  to  go  to  the  teocalli.  The  cortege  was  preceded  by 
a  large  banner,  on  which  were  painted  the  chief  facts  of  the 
life  of  the  deceased  ;  then  came  the  priests  with  censers,  and 
the  servants  carrying  the  body,  stretched  upon  a  litter.  All 
around  walked  the  lesser  chiefs,  wearing  dull-colored  man- 
tles, trailing  upon  the  ground  and  covered  with  paintings 
and  embroidery  representing  heads  or  the  bones  of  the  dead. 
The  messengers  of  the  chiefs  of  the  adjacent  country  car- 
ried the  arms,  the  insignia,  and  ornaments  for  the  funeral 
pyre.  The  slaves  of  the  king  were  loaded  with  clothes  and 
other  objects  intended  for  the  use  of  the  dead,  together  with 
his  favorite  food.  On  its  arrival  at  the  temple,  some  priests 
called  Coacuiles  received  the  body.  Their  songs  reminded 
the  assistants  that  they,  too,  would  soon  be  motionless 
corpses,  flung  upon  the  funeral  pile,  and  that  the 
only  testimony  in  their  favor  would  be  their  good  ac- 
tions. The  functions  of  these  Coacuiles  were  considered 


1  J.  de  Acosta :  "Hist.  Natural  y  Moral  de  las  Yndias,"  Sevilla,  1590,  p. 
321,  et  seq.  Herrera,  loc.  cit,  decade  III.,  book  II.,  chap.  XVIII.;  Ixtlilxo- 
chitl :  "  Relaciones  ;  "  Kingsborough,  vol.  IX.,  p.  370. 


304  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA, 

so  important  that  they  had  to  prepare  themselves  for  them 
by  rigorous  fasts.  According  to  some  accounts  they  wore 
on  these  occasions  a  costume  similar  to  that  of  the  deceased. 
Other  accounts,  on  the  contrary,  speak  of  these  Coacuiles 
as  disguised  as  demons,  wearing  robes  covered  with  hideous 
heads,  the  eyes  of  which  were  represented  by  little  bits 
of  mica;  others  again  say  the  priests  were  naked,  with 
the  body  painted  black,  waving  in  their  hands  sticks  which 
they  were  to  use  to  stir  up  the  fire.  The  pile  was  three  feet 
high,  the  corpse  was  laid  upon  it,  and  when  the  flames  began 
to  rise  it  was  the  duty  of  the  assistants  to  throw  into 
the  midst  of  it  the  objects  they  carried,  after  which  fresh 
sacrifices  began. 

In  the  earliest  times  only  a  few  victims  were  offered  up; 
but  as  the  pomp  of  funerals  increased  with  the  luxury  and 
wealth  of  the  country  their  numbers  increased.  For  in- 
stance, in  honor  of  Nezahualpilli  the  throats  of  two  hundred 
men  and  a  hundred  women  were  successively  cut.  Some- 
times, before  his  death  a  chief  pointed  out  those  of  his 
concubines  who  were  to  follow  him.  In  Michoacan  seven 
women  of  good  family  were  offered  up  at  the  death  of  the 
chief.  One  was  charged  with  the  care  of  the  sacred  emerald 
labret  that  the  chief  wore  hung  from  his  lower  lip  ;  another 
with  that  of  his  trinkets ;  a  third  was  his  cup-bearer.  All 
were  destined  to  serve  him,  and  to  prepare  for  him  food 
suitable  to  the  rank  which  he  was  to  retain  in  his  new  life. 
Those  who  could  be  most  useful  to  the  deceased  were  also 
chosen  from  among  his  slaves  ;  but  instead  of  their  breasts 
being  opened  and  their  hearts  torn  out,  as  was  the 
custom  amongst  the  Aztecs,  those  who  offered  the  victims 
were  contented  with  a  more  ordinary  death.  The  slaves 
were  simply  clubbed  to  death.  When  the  victims  of  a 
higher  sort  were  ranged  around  the  pile,  one  of  the  relatives 
of  the  chief  addressed  them  at  length,  thanking  them  for  the 
services  rendered  the  deceased,  and  urging  them  to  serve 
him  with  the  same  fidelity  in  the  new  world  that  they  were 
both  to  enter.  Then  the  unhappy  wretches  were  seized  one 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTKAL   AMERICA.  3O5 

by  one  by  the  priests  and  stretched  upon  the  sacred  stone ; 
the  heart  was  torn  out  and  flung  upon  the  pile,  and  the 
corpse  was  hurriedly  carried  away. l 

When  the  body  of  the  chief  was  completely  consumed 
the  fire  was  put  out  with  the  blood  of  the  victims  reserved 
for  that  purpose.  The  ashes,  calcined  bones,  and  fragments 
of  ornaments  were  collected  and  placed  in  an  urn  (fig.  122) 
surmounted  by  an  effigy  of  the  deceased,  and  this  urn  was 
placed,  either  at  the  foot  of  the  god  to  whom  the  mourners 
wished  to  do  special  honor,  or  at  those  of  the  divinity 
who  had  been  the  protector  of  the  deceased. 


FIG.  122. — Aztec  mortuary  vase. 

At  the  end  of  the  ceremony  the  assistants  took  part  in 
a  great  banquet ;  they  were  bound  to  return  daily  for  four 
days  to  the  teocalli  and  to  renew  their  offerings.  On 
the  fourth  day  a  last  sacrifice  of  fifteen  or  twenty  miserable 
slaves  concluded  the  affair.  With  the  Chichimecs  it  was 
kept  up  longer,  and  the  sacrifices  and  offerings  had  to  be  re- 
newed through  twenty-four  days. 

The  various  races  which  occupied  Central  America  had 
some  knowledge  of  astronomy.  They  were  acquainted  with 
divisions  of  time  founded  on  the  motion  of  the  sun,  and 
long  before  the  conquest  they  possessed  a  regular  system.* 

'Gomara,  who  wrote  in  the  sixteenth  century,  says  that  the  victim  was 
buried  ;  other  historians,  that  the  body  was  burned  on  a  neighboring  pile. 

1  Ixtlilxochitl  ("  Relaciones,"  /.  c.,  p.  322),  following  in  the  trail  of  his  priestly 
instructors,  says  that  in  the  year  5097  from  the  creation  a  meeting  of  astronomers 


3O6  PRE-HISTOR1C  AMERICA. 

Amongst  the  Aztecs  it  included  periods  of  forty-two  years 
divided  into  cycles  of  thirteen  years,  expressed  in  their  pic- 
tographs  by  hieroglyphic  signs.  The  year  consisted  of 
eighteen  months,  of  twenty  days  each,  and  five  supplement- 
ary days,  which  were  looked  upon  as  of  ill  omen,  and  during 
which  no  Aztec  would  do  any  action  of  importance.  Lastly, 
the  days  were  divided  into  divisions  analogous  to  our  hours. 
The  calculations  of  their  astronomers  early  proved  that  the 
year  of  365  days  did  not  correspond  exactly  with  the  solar 
motion ;  so  that,  many  years  before  the  Gregorian  reform 
was  accepted  in  Europe,  they  had  added  thirteen  days  to 
each  cycle  of  fifty-two  years.  In  1790,  excavations  made  at 
the  Great  Plaza  of  the  City  of  Mexico,  on  the  supposed  site 
of  the  great  Teocalli  destroyed  by  the  Spainards,  brought 
to  light  a  block  of  porphyry  weighing  not  less  than  twenty- 
three  tons.  On  this  block  was  engraved  a  circle  a  little  more 
than  eleven  feet  in  diameter,  containing  the  divisions  of  the 
astronomical  cycle  of  the  Aztecs.1  Together  with  the  solar 
year,  the  Mexicans  kept  the  lunar  year,  which  appears  to 
have  been  used  only  for  religious  holidays.  This  year  was 
divided  into  periods  of  thirteen  days,  corresponding  with  the 
phases  of  the  moon.  * 

Amongst  the  Mayas 3  and  the  Toltecs,  as  amongst  the 
people  of  Central  America,  the  months  also  consisted  of 
twenty  days  ;  and  with  them  all  the  number  twenty  (fingers 
and  toes)  appears  to  have  been  the  base  of  their  system  of 
numeration. 

took  place  at  Huhhue-Tlapallan,  and  it  was  they  who  fixed  the  divisions  of 
time  which  lasted  until  the  conquest.  Professor  Valentini,  "  The  Katunes  of 
Maya  History,"  places  this  change  in  the  divisions  of  time  in  the  year  29  B.  C. 
Both  of  these  estimates  are,  perhaps  it  is  needless  to  say,  more  or  less  hypo- 
thetical. 

'It  has  been  reproduced  by  Charnay,  plate  I.,  and  Short  ("  North  Ameri- 
cans," p.  409)  copies  it  from  him. 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  III.,  p.  502,  755,  et  seq.  Bandelier  :  "  On  the  Special  Organi- 
zation and  Mode  of  Government  of  the  Ancient  Mexicans,"  "  Report,  Peabody 
Museum,"  vol.  II.,  p.  475,  557,  et  seq. 

1  The  Maya  calendar  has  recently  been  the  subject  of  exhaustive  research  by 
Prof.  Cyrus  Thomas,  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  to  whose  publications 
the  reader  is  referred  for  all  details  of  this  branch  of  the  subject. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  307 

The  chief  weapon  of' the  Aztecs  was  the  javelin  (tlacochtli\ 
a  short  lance  of  hard  wood,  the  end  of  which  was  provided 
with  a  point  of  flint,  obsidian,  or,  more  rarely,  of  copper. 
This  point  was  fixed  in  a  slit  in  the  wood,  and  kept  it  in  its 
place  by  lashings  cemented  with  resin.  Each  warrior  also 
carried  darts  which  he  flung  from  a  distance,  a  bow 
(tlauitolli) '  often  more  than  five  feet  long,  and  slings.  The 
macuahuitl  (from  macua,  hand,  and  cuaJiuitl,  wood)  was  a 
wooden  sword,  of  similar  form  to  the  two-handed  sword 
(espadas  de  dos  manas)  of  the  Conquistadors.  The  Spanish 
also  tell  us  that  on  the  edges  of  this  sword  were  inserted 
fragments  of  obsidian  as  keen  as  the  blades  of  Toledo.  The 
blows  of  this  weapon,1  used  by  the  Aztecs  as  a  club,  were 
formidable;  but  the  obsidian  broke  at  the  first  shock, 
and  then  the  macuahuitl  became  useless.  The  shield,  which 
must  not  be  confused  with  that  carried  by  the  chiefs  in 
dances  and  processions,  was  small,  round,  and  wadded  with 
cotton.*  The  braves,4  such  was  the  title  of  the  chief  warriors, 
fastened  it  to  the  left  arm.  As  will  be  seen,  these  weapons 
scarcely  differ  from  those  of  the  other  Nahuas,  which  we 
have  already  described. 

In  some  places,  the  defensive  works  were  important.  The 
way  the  Mexicans  made  fortifications  was  to  choose  a 
naturally  strong  position,  such  as  a  hill  difficult  of  access, 
artificially  widening,  if  necessary,  the  summit  with  earth 
carried  up  to  it,  and  by  surrounding  the  whole  either  by 
stone  walls  or  palisades,  essentially  in  the  manner  of  the 
Mound  Builders  and  Indians.  The  height  of  these  walls, 
with  that  of  the  eminence  itself,  were  the  chief  obstacles  en- 
countered by  the  enemy.  The  Aztec  method  resembled 
that  of  the  Mound  Builders,  which  is  yet  another  indication 

1  Clavigero.  /.  c.,  book  VII.,  chap.  XXIII. 

1  "  El  Conquistador  Anonimo."  Collection  of  Unpublished  Documents, 
vol.  I.,  p.  375. 

1  "  Raccolta  di  Mendoza,"  Kingsborough  Collection. 

4  The  title,  or  rather  the  rank,  of  brave  was  obtained  by  some  dazzling  action. 
The  braves,  as  amongst  the  Indians  of  the  present  day,  took  the  characteristic 
names  of  flesh-eaters ,  great  eagles,  winged  arrows,  and  such  like. 


3O8  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

of  a   connection    that    may   have    existed   between  them.1 

The  costume  of  the  Mexicans  consisted  of  a  sleeveless 
tunic  (nuepil),  fastened  to  the  right  shoulder,  and  of  a  sash 
(niaxtlatt)  of  gaudy  colors.  The  head,  the  arms,  and  the 
legs  were  left  naked.  The  chiefs  also  wore  a  mantle,  the 
length  of  which  indicated  their  rank.  This  mantle  was 
ornamented  with  feathers,  the  color  of  which  varied  accord- 
ing to  the  tribe  to  which  the  wearer  belonged.  Clavigero 2 
relates  that  the  soldiers  only  wore  the  maxtlatl,  and  that 
before  going  to  war  they  painted  their  bodies,  and  especially 
the  face,  black.  Alvarado,  on  the  contrary,  in  a  letter  ad- 
dressed to  Cortes,3  says  that  the  Guatemalians  dressed  in 
garments  padded  with  cotton,  which  came  down  to  the  ankles. 
The  shoes  (cactli-cotaras)  resembled  the  Indian  moccasins. 
They  are  reproduced  on  some  of  the  bas-reliefs  of  Palenque. 

As  head-dresses,  the  warriors  wore  imitations  in  wood  of 
the  heads  of  the  tiger,  wolf,  and  serpent,  covered  with  the 
actual  skin  of  the  animal.  The  reward  of  valor  in  war  was 
the  right  of  wearing,  above  the  ears,  one  or  more  partings 
in  the  hair.  The  character  of  these  head-dresses  and  marks 
of  honor  have  been  preserved  to  our  day  by  pictography. 

In  Mexico  the  chiefs  were  called  Teachcautin,  or  elder 
brothers.  It  was  their  duty  not  only  to  lead  their  soldiers 
to  battle,  but  to  teach  them  in  time  of  peace  their  military 
duties,  especially  how  to  handle  their  weapons.  The  chiefs 
wore,  as  insignia  of  their  rank,  ear-plugs  like  those  of  the 
Mound  Builders,  and  labrets,4  as  may  be  seen  in  the  repre- 
sentations of  them  at  Palenque  and  Copan. 

The  Aztec  government  is  constantly  represented  as  an 
hereditary  chieftainship,  strongly  organized  and  supported 
by  subsidiary  chiefs,  also  hereditary.  The  first  hints  on 
this  subject  come  from  Cortes  himself  (Carta  segunda,  pp. 
12  and  13). 

*  Tezozomoc,  /.  c.,  chap.  XC.,  p.  158-9.      Duran,  /.  c.,  chap.  LVI.,  p.  443. 
1  L.  c.,  book  VIII.,  chap.  XXIII. 

*  A  letter  of  the  28th  July,   1524,  reproduced  by  Veytia  :    "  Hist.  Ant.  de 
Mejico,"  vol.  I. 

4  Duran,  /.  c.,  chap.  XIX.,  p.  169.     Sahagun,  book  IX.,  chap.  VI.,  p.  264. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  309 

"  In  the  town  of  Mexico,"  he  writes,  "are  a  considerable 
number  of  large  and  beautiful  houses,  which  are  the  resi- 
dences of  all  the  lords  of  the  country,  vassals  of  Monte- 
zuma."  The  almost  unanimous  accounts  of  Spanish  writers, 
unconsciously  colored,  perhaps,  by  the  impressions  or  preju- 
dices of  their  country,  combined  to  establish  this  account. 
Later  researches,  however,  on  the  contrary,  justify  us  in  sup- 
posing that  the  government  was  very  democratic,  and  that 
appointments  were  given  by  election.1 

Tlaca-Tecuhtli,  the  chief  of  men,  the  wise  veteran,  such 
were  the  titles  he  bore,  was  elected  for  life.  It  is  fair  to 
add,  however,  that  this  king  was  almost  always  chosen  from 
the  same  family.  Among  the  Tezcuans  this  office  passed 
from  father  to  son  ;  among  the  Aztecs,  from  brother  to 
brother,  from  uncle  to  nephew,  but  the  hereditary  right,  if 
indeed  it  existed,  had  to  be  confirmed  by  election.4  The 
supreme  chief  could  be  deposed ;  and  it  was  thus  that  Mon- 
tezuma  was  degraded,  and  replaced  by  his  brother,  Cuitla- 
huatrin.3 

Another  chief,  also  elective,  bore  the  grotesque  title  of 
Chihua-Cohuatl,  the  "  female  serpent."  He  sat  beside  the 
ruler,  and  it  was  his  duty  to  preside  at  the  administration  of 

1  Bandelier,  /.  c. ,  "  Report  of  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  II.,  pp.  95,  475,  557, 
600. 

"The  titles  of  king,  nobles,  court,  lords,  palaces,  etc.,  are  misleading  as  ap- 
plied to  the  chiefs  of  any  American  races.  Nothing  resembling  monarchy  in 
the  civilized  sense  has  ever  existed  among  our  aborigines.  But  this  was  not  re- 
alized by  the  Spaniards,  who  saw,  without  understanding,  the  organization  of 
Mexican  society,  and  applied  to  it  terms  with  which  they  were  familiar,  no  mat- 
ter how  unsuitable  in  reality. 

*  Cortes  ("Carta  segunda  ")  makes,  it  is  true,  no  allusion  to  it  ;  but  Bernal 
Diaz  de  Castillo  ("  Hist,  verdadera  de  la  Conquista  de  la  Nueva  Espafla," 
chap.  XXVI.,  p.  132),  Las  Casas  ("  Brevissima  Relacion,"  p.  49),  Sahagun  (book 
XII.,  chap.  XXI.,  p.  28),  Torquemada  (book  IV.,  chap.  LXVIII.,  p.  494),  and 
Herrera  (decade  II.,  book  X.,  chap.  VIII.,  p.  264),  are  unanimous  on  this 
point. 

4  This  dignity  does  not  appear  to  have  existed  until  after  the  alliance  between 
Mexico,  Tezcuco,  and  Tlacolpan.  Duran,  chap.  XXIV.,  p.  205  ;  Tezozomoc, 
"Chronica,"  chap.  XXIX.,  p.  35;  Ixtlilxochitl :  "  Relaciones";  Kingsbor- 
ough,  vol.  IX. 


310  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

justice  and  the  receipt  of  tribute.  According  to  some,  he 
could  never  go  to  war ;  according  to  others,  he  commanded 
the  Mexicans,  while  the  Tlaca-Tecuhtli  led  the  allies.  The 
Chihua-Cohuatl  alone  had  the  right  of  wearing  a  tuft  of 
green  feathers  on  his  head,  gold  rings  in  his  ears  and  in  his 
lips,  an  emerald  hanging  from  the  cartilage  of  the  nose,  gold 
bracelets,  and  anklets  of  rare  feathers.  On  his  war  costume 
he  also  wore  a  large  tress  of  feathers,  which  hung  down  to 
the  waist ;  and  on  such  occasions  used  a  little  drum  to  give 
his  orders.1 

The  aim  of  war  was  often  merely  to  secure  prisoners 
necessary  for  sacrifices.  When  it  was  resolved  upon,  the 
Mexicans  sent  ambassadors  to  the  pueblo  against  which  they 
had  a  complaint,  the  ambassadors  carrying,  as  tokens  of 
their  mission,  an  arrow  with  the  point  downward  and  a 
shield  fastened  to  the  left  arm.a  Arrived  at  the  council, 
they  stated  their  demands ;  if  the  chiefs  of  the  pueblo  agreed 
to  them,  the  envoys  accepted  the  present  offered  to  them  ; 
if  on  the  contrary  their  demands  were  rejected,  they 
approached  the  chief  of  the  tribe,  painted  his  arms  white, 
placed  feathers  on  his  head,  and  offered  him  a  sword  and  a 
shield.  This  was  the  accepted  form  of  a  declaration  of  war, 
and  when  it  was  made  the  ambassadors  had  to  beat  a  hasty 
retreat,  or  their  lives  were  in  the  greatest  danger.3 

In  truth  neither  the  Aztecs  nor  the  other  Nahuas  formed 
a  state,  a  nation,  or  even  a  political  society.  They  were 
simply  a  confederation  of  tribes,  these  tribes  themselves  con- 
sisting of  an  agglomeration  of  clans  or  Calpulli?  This  organi- 
zation presents  certain  resemblances  with  that  which  existed 
in  the  north  of  Scotland  and  Ireland.  All  the  members  of 
the  clan,  connected  by  a  real  or  supposed  relationship  to  a 
common  ancestor  and  bearing  the  same  name,  had  a  collec- 

'Duran,  ./.  c.,  chap.  XIV.  and  XVI.  J.  de  Acosta,  /.  c.,  chap.  XXV.,  p. 
441. 

*  Torquemada,  /.  c.,  book  XIV.,  chap.  I.,  p.  534. 

*  Ixtlilxochitl :   "  Hist.  Chic. ,"  chap.  XXXVIII.    G.  de  Mendieta  :   "  Hist. 
Eccl.  Indiana,"  Mexico,  1870,  book  II.,  chap.  XXVI.,  p.  129. 

4  Bandelier,  /.  £.,  p.  557,  etc. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  311 

tive  right  in  the  lands  of  the  tribe,  which  they  enjoyed,  pay- 
ing an  annual  rent  to  the  chief. 

The  Calpulli,  true  families,  doubtless  united  by  a  close 
blood-relationship,  were  responsible  for  the  acts  and  the  con- 
duct of  their  members.  These  members  were  bound  mutu- 
ally to  defend  each  other,  to  avenge  injuries  done  to  any 
one  of  them,  and  to  support  the  old,  the  infirm,  and  all 
those  incapable  of  taking  part  in  the  common  work. 

There  was  no  such  thing  as  private  property,  at  least  with 
regard  to  land.  The  lands,  which  were  called  Calpulalli, 
belonged  to  the  Calpulli,  who  could  neither  sell  nor  exchange 
them.  They  were  divided  at  fixed  periods  between  all  the 
males  of  the  tribe,  with  the  obligation  of  cultivating  them 
and  of  residing  within  the  limits  of  the  Calpulli.  Some 
lands  (tlamilli)  were  reserved  to  the  chiefs,  but  neither  these 
chiefs  nor  their  families  had  any  permanent  rights  in  them, 
and  when  they  gave  up  office  the  lands  were  reabsorbed  in 
the  public  domain.  Other  lands  (tlatocatlallt]  were  set  aside 
for  the  tribute  that  every  Calpulli  had  to  pay  to  the  ruler  of 
Mexico.  They  were  cultivated  by  all  the  members  of  the 
family,  and  the  crops  were  taken  to  private  storehouses. 
But  for  the  necessity  of  making  this  annual  payment,  the 
tribes  and  Calpulli  appear  to  have  been  completely  indepen- 
dent ;  their  chiefs  were  elected  for  life,  and  no  one  could 
interfere  with  their  choice,  which  almost  always  fell  upon 
old  men  who  had  submitted,  or  would  have  to  submit,  to  a 
very  severe  religious  initiation,  which  we  are  about  to 
describe.  As  will  be  seen,  this  collection  of  institutions 
shows  no  trace  of  feudalism.1 

Descent  was  through  the  female  line,  and  the  family  was 
constituted  by  the  maternal  alliances  alone.  It  was  not 
until  later  that  paternal  descent  was  admitted.  Marriage 
existed  ;  but  marriage  was  forbidden  between  near  relations, 
and  probably  between  members  of  the  same  Calpulli.  The 
position  of  women  was  hard  ;  they  became  in  most  respects 

1  Orozeo  y  Berra  :  "  Geographia  de  las  lenguas  y  carta  ethnografica  de 
Mexico." 


312  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

the  property  of  their  husbands.  A  marriage  could,  however, 
be  annulled,  on  the  request  of  the  woman,  provided  that 
this  annulment  had  the  approbation  of  the  Calpulli,  and 
in  that  case  the  woman  returned  to  her  own  family.  Every 
man  was  bound  to  marry  when  he  came  to  the  age  of  twenty 
years,  with  the  exception  of  certain  priests,  who  took  a  vow 
of  chastity  in  honor  of  the  gods  they  served.  Polygamy 
was  not  forbidden ;  the  husband,  or  rather  the  master,  had  a 
right  to  as  many  concubines  as  he  wished  ;  the  necessity 
of  supporting  them  was  the  only  curb  upon  his  passion. 

Patronymic  names  were  unknown.1  On  the  birth  of  her 
child  the  mother  chose  the  name  she  wished  given  to  him  ; 
this  name  was  generally  connected  either  with  the  month  in 
which  the  infant  was  born  or  with  circumstances  of  his  birth. 
When  his  childhood  was  over  the  name  by  which  he  was 
henceforth  to  be  known  was  given  to  him  by  the  medicine- 
man, who  played  a  considerable  part  amongst  the  Mexican 
tribes,  as  he  still  does  alike  amongst  the  Indians  of  the 
pueblos  and  the  wandering  Indians.  A  warrior  could  get  a 
third  name  by  an  act  of  exceptional  bravery ;  and  this  name 
was  awarded  to  him  by  the  Calpulli. 

The  Calpulli  was  also  charged  with  the  education  of 
children.  A  public  building  (telpuchcalti)  was  set  apart  for 
this  purpose.  All  the  boys  without  exception  went  to  it ; 
manual  work,  the  art  of  war,  the  handling  of  arms,  dancing, 
and  singing  formed  the  rudiments  of  education."  Those 
amongst  the  scholars  who  were  strong  enough  had  to 
cultivate  the  lands  belonging  to  the  Teocallis,  which  were  set 
aside  for  the  support  of  the  priest  and  the  expenses  of  public 
worship. 

Slavery  existed  amongst  the  various  tribes  of  Central 
America.  The  man  belonging  to  a  Calpulli  who  refused  to 
marry,  or  who  did  not  cultivate  the  lands  assigned  to  him, 
and  the  prisoners  taken  in  war,  unless  they  were  sacrificed  to 

1  Torquemada,  book  XIII.,  chap.  XXII.,  p.  454,  et  seq. 

2  Gomara :  "  Hist,  de  Mexico."    Sahagun  :    "  Hist.  Gen.,"  book  III.,  chap. 
IV.,  p.  268,  chap.  V.,  p.  269,  chap.  VIII.,  p.  275. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  313 

the  gods,  became  slaves.  They  were  called  tlacolti,  literally 
"  bought  men."  If  the  slave  escaped,  his  master  had  the 
right  to  make  him  wear  a  wooden  collar.  If  he  ran  away  a 
second  time  he  was  taken  to  the  temple  and  immediately 
slain.  If,  as  very  rarely  happened,  he  managed  to  reach  the 
council-chamber  set  aside  for  the  chiefs  of  the  tribe,  without 
being  arrested  either  by  his  master  or  by  any  other  member 
of  the  Calpulli,  he  received  his  liberty.1  The  slave  who 
in  battle  achieved  an  act  of  valor  not  only  had  a  right  to  his 
liberty,  but  he  could  also  be  adopted  by  the  Calpulli; 
henceforth  he  became  one  of  its  members,  enjoying  the  same 
rights  as  his  brothers,  and  like  them  receiving  arms.  When 
a  slave  was  not  thus  liberated  he  acted  as  load-bearer  during 
war,  as  do  certain  negroes  of  the  interior  of  Africa  at 
the  present  day.  Beasts  of  burden  were  unknown  ;  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  porters  to  carry  the  necessary  maize  for  the 
frugal  food  of  the  soldiers,  the  tents  and  the  cords  for  mak- 
ing them  fast,  and  the  poles  and  straw  for  the  construction 
of  rude  huts.  In  case  of  capture  by  the  enemy  the  poor 
wretches  were  almost  always  offered  in  sacrifice  to 
the  gods. 

Judging  by  the  accounts  which  have  come  down  to  us,  or 
by  the  old  paintings  preserved  at  Mexico,  punishments  were 
severe  among  the  tribes  of  the  Nahuatl  race.*  According  to 
Las  Casas,  murder  was  punished  by  death  * ;  according  to 
Duran,  by  slavery  for  life.  The  man  or  woman  who  wore 
the  clothes  of  the  other  sex  was  also  condemned  to  death. 
Rape,  incest,  sodomy,  were  punished  with  the  same  penalty ; 
but  for  each  crime  the  mode  of  execution  varied  :  the  inces- 
tuous criminal  was  hung4;  he  who  violated  a  child  in 
Michoacan  was  impaled ;  the  sodomite  was  burned.*  He 

1  Mendieta:   "  Hist.  Ecc.  Ind.,"  book  II.,  chap.  XXVII.,  p.  30. 

1  Bancroft,  vol.  II.,  p.  460,  et  seq.     Bandelier,  loc.  cit.,  p.  623,  el  seq. 

1  "  Hist.  Apol.,"  App.,  Kingsborough,  vol.  VIII. 

4  Torquemada,  book  XII.,  cbap.  IV. 

*  In  spite  of  the  severity  of  this  punishment,  sodomy  was  no  less  common 
among  the  Aztecs  than  among  the  ancient  people  of  Europe.  "  A  certain  num- 
ber of  priests,"  says  Father  Pierre  de  Gand  ('  Letter  included  in  the  Ternaux 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

who  in  a  battle  took  possession  of  a  prisoner  taken  by  an- 
other, he  whose  duty  it  was  to  cultivate  the  lands  of 
children  or  of  others  unable  to  till  their  own  ground,  and  who 
neglected  this  duty  for  two  consecutive  years,  or  he  who 
stole  gold  or  silver  objects  consecrated  to  the  gods,  was 
also  punished  with  death.1  The  same  punishment  was  given 
for  seducing  a  woman  who  had  taken  a  vow  of  chastity,  or  a 
married  woman  belonging  to  the  same  Calpulli.  The  adul- 
teress was  quartered,  and  her  limbs  were  divided  amongst 
all  the  men  of  the  Calpulli. 

The  restitution  of  the  stolen  objects  made  amends  for  the 
theft ;  but  in  default  of  this  restitution  the  thief  became  a 
slave  for  life.  Those  guilty  of  calumny  had  their  lips  cut. 
Old  men  of  more  than  seventy  were  alone  allowed  to  get 
drunk  ;  a  drunkard  younger  than  this  had  his  head  shaved, 
and  if  he  held  any  office  he  was  publicly  degraded. 

Corporeal  punishment  was  rare.  It  was  considered  shame- 
ful even  for  a  slave  to  be  chastised.  Pictography,  however, 
shows  us  a  father  or  a  master  chastising  a  child  with  a  whip. 
There  were  prisons  in  the  different  Teocallis  and  the  public 
buildings2;  and,  if  we  can  trust  the  Conquistadores,  these 
prisons  were  pestilential-  places,  in  which  the  air  was  so 
vitiated  that  the  unfortunate  wretches  sent  to  them  rapidly 
perished  by  suffocation. 

No  written  laws  regulated  those  various  penalties ;  they 
were  probably  inflicted  in  accordance  with  ancient  customs, 
and  must  certainly  have  varied  amongst  the  different  tribes. 

We  have  said  that  the  association  of  the  clans  or  Calpulli, 
united  by  the  bonds  of  a  common  territory,  common  reli- 
gious rites  and  a  common  language,  formed  the  tribe.  Some 

Compans  Collection,'  1st  series,  vol  X.,  p.  197),  could  not  have  wives,  sed 
earum  loco pueros  abutebantur.  The  sin  was  so  common  that  young  and  old 
were  infected  by  it."  We  must,  however,  make  some  allowance  for 
exaggeration. 

1  Mendieta,  loc.  fit.,  book  II.,  chap.  XXIX.  Vetancurt :  "  Teatro  Mexi- 
cano,"  vol.  I.,  p.  484. 

a  Teilpiloyanor  Tecaltzaqualoyan.  Mendieta,  loc.  cit.,  chap.  XXIX.,  p.  138. 
Molina  :  "  Vocabulerio  in  lengua  Castillana  y  Mexicana,"  Mexico,  1571,  vol. 
II.,  pp.  86-91. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  31$ 

tribes  are  mentioned  which  included  as  many  as  twenty 
Calpulli. 

The  tribe  was  governed  by  a  council  composed  of  dele- 
gates from  each  Calpulli  (tetoani,  orators,  or  techutatoca, 
talking  chiefs).  They  met  in  the  tecpan,  or  council-cham- 
ber, and  it  was  their  duty  to  uphold  the  ancestral  customs, 
and  especially  to  maintain  harmony  among  the  Calpulli, 
which  was,  according  to  the  chroniclers,  a  very  difficult  task.1 

In  the  tribe,  as  in  the  Calpulli,  no  office  or  dignity  was 
hereditary.  They  were  obtained  by  election,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  title  of  Tecuhtli  (grandfather),  which  was 
given  as  a  reward  for  acts  of  bravery  before  the  enemy,  for 
long  and  important  services  either  in  the  council  or  in  the 
embassies,  of  which  we  have  described  the  perils.  It  was 
also  possible  to  obtain  it  by  a  series  of  initiations,  to  which 
he  who  aspired  to  this  honor  had  to  submit.  During  four 
days  and  four  nights  he  was  shut  up  in  the  chief  teocalli  of 
the  tribe  and  subjected  to  a  most  rigorous  .fast.  He  was 
bled  from  every  part  of  his  body ;  all  sleep  was  forbidden  to 
him  ;  his  keepers  tore  off  his  clothes,  scourged  him  cruelly, 
and  to  add  to  his  misery  they  partook  before  him  of  sump- 
tuous feasts,  at  which  he  had  to  look  on  without  for  an  in- 
stant losing  his  impassibility.  The  four  days  over,  the 
novice  returned  to  his  Calpulli,  where  he  passed  an  entire 
year  in  retreat  and  the  most  rigorous  penance,  mutilating 
himself  and  inflicting  often  intolerable  bodily  torture. 
Throughout  this  time  his  brothers  collected  the  presents 
that  they  were  bound  to  offer  to  the  gods,  chiefs  of  the 
tribe,  priests,  and  medicine-men.  At  the  expiration  of  the 
year,  the  future  Tecuhtli  had  to  go  back  to  the  teocalli  and 
to  submit  anew  to  the  tests  he  had  already  gone  through, 
and  which  terminated  at  last  in  a  grand  feast,  at  which  were 
given  to  him  the  ornaments  that  he  had  henceforth  the  right 
to  wear,  and  which  appear  to  have  been  his  only  privilege.2 

1  A.  de  Zurita  :  "  Rapport  sur  les  differentes  classes  de    chefs  de  la  Nouvelle 
Espagne,"  Ternaux  Compans,  2d  series,  vol.  II. 
•Sahagun,    book  VIII.,  chap.  XXXVIII.,  p.  329.     Ixtlilxochitl :    "  Rela- 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

We  have  now  summarized  the  facts  actually  known  of  the 
organization  and  government  of  the  various  people  belong- 
ing to  the  powerful  Nahuatl  race,  who  successively  overran 
Central  America,  and  especially  Anahuac.  We  have  still  to 
speak  of  the  ruins,  the  importance  of  which  becomes  each 
day  more  apparent,  which  rise  before  the  eyes  of  the  trav- 
eller even  in  deserts  and  in  the  midst  of  forests  previously 
reputed  impenetrable. 

Before  touching  these  new  questions,  we  must  not  omit 
one  remark  which  cannot  fail  to  have  occurred  to  the  reader. 
Long  before  the  Spanish  conquest  the  people  of  America 
had  reached  that  state  to  which  modern  socialism  would 
return,  and  of  which  the  latter  claims  the  honor  and  the 
profit ;  the  absence  of  all  hereditary  principles  in  property 
as  in  the  family ;  communism  alike  in  the  pueblo  and  in  the 
Calpulli ;  the  omission,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  of  any 
name  transmitted  from  father  to  son  which  could  perpetuate 
in  descendants  the  glory  of  ancestors ;  the  education  in 
common  of  all  children  under  the  sole  authority  of  represen- 
tatives of  the  Calpulli ;  election  to  all  offices  and  all  posts ; 
the  merging  of  the  individual  for  the  good  of  the  com- 
munity. To  what  did  these  institutions  lead,  which  igno- 
rance and  theory  delight  in  holding  up  to  the  human  race  as 
the  beacon  lights  of  the  future  ?  To  the  most  complete 
anarchy ;  to  struggles  without  end  or  truce  between  tribe 
and  tribe,  Calpulli  and  Calpulli ;  to  hatred  so  fierce  that  the 
Spanish  appeared  as  liberators,  and  owed  their  victory  as 
much  to  the  services  of  allies,  eager  to  escape  from  the  yoke 
which  weighed  them  down,  as  to  the  courage  of  their  own 
soldiers. 

clones,"  app.,  p.  257.  Mendieta,  book  II.,  chap.  XXXVIII.,  p.  156.  It  is 
curious  to  meet  with  ceremonies  somewhat  like  these  amongst  the  Incas  and 
the  Indians  of  Orinoco  (Bandelier,  /.  c.,  p.  643  and  note  171). 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   RUINS   OF   CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

IN  a  previous  chapter  we  gave  a  summary  of  the  best 
available  information  about  the  races  who  occupied  Central 
America,  pushed  southward,  founding  confederacies,  build- 
ing towns,  and  covering  whole  regions  with  their  struc- 
tures, to  disappear,  leaving  hardly  a  name  in  history,  or  a 
memory  in  tradition.  To  complete  this  study,  we  must 
now  ascertain  what  the  monuments,  or  rather  the  ruins, 
that  time  and  men  have  alike  been  powerless  to  destroy,  can 
tell  us. 

One  preliminary  remark  must  be  made.  We  hardly  meet 
with  such  grand  structures  as  those  of  Egypt  or  Assyria,  of 
India  or  of  China,  except  under  similar  circumstances  ;  al- 
most essential  for  their  erection  were  a  people  living  under 
despotic  government,  and  a  conquering  race  forcibly  com- 
pelling a  subject  people  to  do  the  necessary  work.  The  con- 
querors contributed  their  taste,  their  traditions,  and  their 
peculiar  genius ;  the  conquered  contributed  the  material 
elements  with  their  labor  and  the  sweat  of  their  brow.  We 
are  hardly  yet  justified  in  asserting  that  similar  events  took 
place  in  America,  though  we  may  suspect  that  the  monu- 
ments still  existing  had  a  similar  origin. 

The  researches,  made  at  the  cost  of  difficult  and  often 
dangerous  explorations,  have  rendered  possible  some  at- 
tempts at  classification ;  and  we  can  already  distinguish 
between  Maya  and  Nahuatl  architecture ;  and  among  the 
Mayas  themselves,  between  the  style  of  the  buildings  of 
Chiapas  and  those  of  Yucatan  ' 

1  Short,  "North  Americans  of  Antiquity,"  p.  340. 

3*7 


3l8  PRE-HISTORIC   AMERICA, 

The  monuments  of  Palenque  '  are  justly  reckoned  amongst 
the  most  remarkable  in  Chiapas.  The  town  stands  in  the 
region  watered  by  the  Usumacinta,  where  settled  the  first 
immigrants  of  whom  it  has  been  possible  to  distinguish 
traces.  The  position  of  Palenque,  at  the  foot  of  the  first 
buttresses  of  the  mountain-chain,  on  the  bank's  of  the  little 
river  Otolum,  one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Tulija,  was  ad- 
mirably chosen.2  The  streets  extended  for  a  length  of  from 
six  to  eight  leagues,  irregularly  following  the  course  of  the 
streams  which  descend  from  the  mountains  and  furnished 
the  inhabitants  with  an  abundant  supply  of  the  water  neces- 
sary to  them.  At  the  present  day  the  ruins  rise  in  solitude, 
which  adds  to  the  effect  produced  by  them.  They  were 
long  altogether  unknown  ;  Cortes,  in  one  of  his  expeditions, 
passed  within  a  few  miles  of  Palenque  without  suspecting 
its  existence;  and  it  was  not  till  1746,  that  chance  led  to  its 
discovery  by  a  cure  of  the  neighborhood.3 

We  owe  the  first  description  of  the  ruins  to  Jos£  de 
Calderon,  who  had  been  sent  by  the  Spanish  government  to 
examine  them.  His  account  is  dated  December  15,  1764. 
Since  then  they  have  been  visited  by  numerous  explorers ; 
only  a  year  or  two  ago  Charnay  returned  a  second  time  from 
Palenque,  and  the  casts  taken  by  him  of  the  hieroglyphics 
there  are  among  the  most  curious  possessions  of  the  new 
Trocadero  Museum  at  Paris. 

1  Palenque  comes  from  a  Spanish  word  signifying  palisade ;  the  ancient  name 
of  the  town  is  still  unknown. 

4  A.  del  Rio,"  Descripcion  del  terreno  y  poblacion  antigua,"  English  transla- 
tion, London,  1822.  Captain  Dupaix,  "  Relation  des  trois  expeditions  ordon- 
nees  en  1805, -6,  and-7,  pour  la  recherche  des  antiquites  du  pays  notamment  de 
celles  de  Mitlaetde  Palenque,"  3  vol,  fol.  Paris,  1833.  See  also  Kingsborough, 
/.  c.,  vols.  V.  and  VI.  Waldeck  :  "  Voy.  arch,  et  pittoresque  dans  la  province 
du  Yucatan,"  fol.  Paris,  1838.  Stephens  &  Catherwood  :  "  Incidents  of  Travel 
in  Central  America,"  New  York,  1841 ;  "  In  Yucatan,"  New  York,  1858,  by 
the  same  authors.  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg:  "  Recherches  sur  les  mines  de 
Palenque  avec  les  dessins  de  Waldeck,"  fol.  Paris,  1866.  Bancroft,  /.  c,,  vol. 
IV.,  p.  289,  et  seq,,  gives  a  very  complete  bibliography,  which  is  useful  to  con- 
sult. 

3  In  1750,  according  to  D.  Diego  Juarros:  "  Hist,  of  the  Kingdom  of  Guate- 
mala," London,  1823. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  319 

Among  the  best-preserved  ruins  may  be  mentioned  the 
palace,  the  temple  of  the  three  tablets,  the  temple  of  the  bas- 
reliefs,  the  temple  of  the  cross,  and  the  temple  of  the  sun. 
We  keep  the  names  given  by  various  explorers  in  the 
absence  of  better  ones.  There  are  others,  but  of  less  impor- 
tance. Dupaix  speaks  of  eleven  buildings  still  standing, 
and  a  few  years  before  A.  del  Rio  mentioned  twenty ; 
Waldeck  says  eighteen,  and  Maler,  who  visited  the  ruins  of 
Palenque  in  1877,  fixes  the  number  of  the  temples  or  palaces 
at  twelve.  These  contradictions  are  more  apparent  than 
real,  and  are  explained  by  the  different  impressions  of  each 
traveller,  and  the  divisions  he  thought  it  necessary  to 
adopt. 

The  palace,  the  most  important  building  of  Palenque, 
rests  on  a  truncated  pyramid  '  about  forty  feet  high,  the 
base  of  which  measures  from  three  hundred  and  ten  feet  by 
two  hundred  and  sixty.  The  inside  of  this  pyramid  is  of 
earth  ;  the  external  faces  are  covered  with  large  slabs  ;  steps 
lead  up  to  the  principal  building,  which  forms  a  quadrilateral 
of  two  hundred  and  twenty-eight  feet  by  one  hundred 
and  eighty a ;  the  walls,  which  are  two  or  three  feet  thick,  are 
of  rubble,  crowned  by  a  frieze  framed  between  two  double 
cornices.  Inside  as  well  as  outside  they  are  covered  with  a 
very  fine  and  durable  stucco,  painted  red  or  blue,  black 
or  white.  The  principal  front  faces  the  east  ;  it  includes 
fourteen  entrances  about  nine  feet  wide,  separated  by 
pilasters  ornamented  with  figures.  These  figures  measure 
more  than  six  feet  high,  and  are  full  of  movement ;  while 
above  the  head  of  each  are  hieroglyphics  inlaid  in  the 
stucco  (fig.  123).  Some  day,  perhaps,  a  key  to  them  will  be 

'Some  subterranean  galleries  have  been  made  out  in  the  interior  of  the 
pyramid.  These  pyramids,  which  remind  us  of  the  work  of  the  Mound 
Builders,  are  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  the  architecture  of  Central 
America. 

"Stephens,  /.  c.,  vol.  II.,  p.  310;  Waldeck:  "Palenque,"  pi.,  II.; 
Armen  ("  Das  heutige  Mexico  ")  gives  a  ground-plan  and  an  attempt  at  restora- 
tion of  the  temple.  Bancroft  also  gives  an  attempt  at  restoration  (/.  c.,  vol.  IV., 
P-  323). 


320 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


discovered  and  the  history  of  Palenque  be  revealed.  Nu- 
merous masonry  niches  in  the  wall  merit  special  atten- 
tion on  account  of  their  resemblance  to  the  letter  T  or 
rather  the  Egyptian  tau.1  Waldeck  made  out  on  some  of 
them  marks  of  smoke,  from  which  he  concluded  that 
they  were  intended  to  hold  torches  ;  others  may  have  been 


FIG.  123. — Stucco  bas-relief  from  Palenque. 

used   for   supplying  the   passage-ways   with   air  and   light 
of  which  they  stood  in  great  need. 

1 "  As  for  the  figures  of  tau,  so  numerous  in  the  buildings,  ornaments,  bas- 
reliefs,  and  even  in  the  form  of  the  lights,  although  it  is  impossible  to 
pronounce  an  opinion  on  this  point  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge, 
we  cannot  avoid  noticing  it."  Jomard  :  Bull.  Soc.  Gdog.t  de  Paris,  vol.  V., 
series  II.,  p.  620.  One  of  the  bas-reliefs  of  the  palace  figured  by  Bancroft  (/.  c.. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA. 


321 


The  inside  of  the  palace  corresponds  with  the  magnifi- 
cence of  the  outside  ;  there  are  galleries  forming  a  peristyle 
all  round  the  court ;  and  the  rooms  are  decorated  with 
granite  bas-reliefs  (fig.  124),  grotesque  figures,  some  thirteen 
feet  high.  The  drawing  and  the  anatomical  proportions  are 
tolerably  correct,  and  the  expression  of  the  figures  speaks 
well  for  the  skill  of  the  artist ;  but  the  execution  is  weak, 
suggesting  an  art  in  decadence  rather  than  the  ruggedness 
of  one  in  its  infancy.1 


FlG.  124. — Bas-relief  of  the  palace  of  Palenque. 

These  rooms  were  united  by  corridors ;  we  reproduce  a 
section  of  one  of  them  (fig.  125),  which  will  give  an  idea  of 
the  mode  of  its  construction.  The  architects  of  Palenque 
were  ignorant  of  the  arch,  and  their  vaults  were  formed  of 
over-sailing  courses,  one  above  the  other,  as  in  the  cyclopean 
monuments  of  Greece  and  Italy. 

vol.  IV.,  p.  317)  is  a  figure  wearing  an  ornament  in  the  form  of  the  tau. 
In  chapter  VIII,  we  mention  some  windows  which  are  also  of  this  form 
in  the  Yucay  valley,  Peru.  We  know  that  the  tau,  in  Egyptian  hieroglyphics, 
signifies  life.  Max  Uhlman  :  "  Handbuch  der  gesamten  Aegyptischen 
alterthumskunde,"  vol.  I.,  p.  108. 

1  Viollet  le  Due,  in  Charnay  :    "  Cites  et  Ruines  Americaines,"  Int.,  p.  74. 


322 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


The  building  is  finished  off  with  a  tower  of  three  stories, 
measuring  thirty  feet  square  at  the  base.  Here,  too,  we  find 
symbolical  decorations,  which  are  very  rich  and  in  a  very 
good  state  of  preservation.  There  is  nothing  to  indicate  the 
age  of  this  palace ;  it  was,  as  we  have  said,  abandoned  at  the 
time  of  the  Spanish  conquest,  at  which  epoch,  moreover, 
none  of  the  races  peopling  America  were  in  the  habit  of 
constructing  similar  buildings.  We  can,  however,  fix  a  cer- 
tain limit  to  its  age ;  for,  with  tropical  rains  lasting  six 
months  a  year,  and  the  luxurious  vegetation  which  fills  all 
the  crevices,  no  monument  could  last  for  a  number  of  cen- 
turies, such  as  is  attributed,  for  instance,  to  the  buildings  of 
Egypt ;  and  the  most  daring  conjectures  do  not  admit  of 


FlG.  125. — Section  of  a  double  corridor  at  Pak-nque. 

our  dating  the  monuments  of  Palenque  earlier  than  the  first 
centuries  of  our  era.1  After  this  last  visit,  indeed,  Charnay 
no  longer  accepts  so  remote  a  date  as  that,  but  thinks  that 
all  the  monuments  of  Yucatan  are  the  work  of  the  Toltecs, 
and  were  built  between  the  twelfth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
turies.* It  is  impossible  that  these  delicate  ornaments, 
made  of  little  lozenge-shaped  bits  of  cement  stuck  on  to  the 
wall,  could  have  longer  resisted  the  effects  of  a  destructive 

1  Bancroft  (vol.  IV.,  p.  362,  note  68)  gives  a  list  of  all  the  hypotheses  as  to 
the  date  of  the  foundation  of  Palenque.  They  vary  from  the  date  of  the 
deluge  to  the  fifteenth  century  of  the  Christian  era.  The  margin,  it  will  be 
seen,  is  wide. 

*  Bull.  Soc.  Gtbgr.,  November,  1881. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

climate.  Another  no  less  important  remark  must  be  made. 
The  staircases  are  new,  the  steps  are  whole,  the  edges  are 
sharp ;  nowhere  do  we  see  any  traces  of  wear  and  tear,  the 
certain  proofs  of  long  habitation.  The  conclusion  is  inevi- 
table ;  the  people  of  Palenque,  for  reasons  which  are  still 
unknown,  evacuated  the  town  soon  after  the  construction  of 
the  chief  buildings. 

The  size  of  the  trees  overgrowing  the  roofs  and  the  pyra- 
mids had  hitherto  been  accepted  as  a  conclusive  proof  of 
the  antiquity  of  these  buildings.  It  was  by  relying  upon 
such  evidence  that  Waldeck  spoke  of  2,000  years ;  and  Lar- 
rainzar  speaks  of  one  tree  amongst  the  ruins,  on  which  he 
was  able,  with  the  help  of  a  microscope,  to  count  as  many 
as  1,700  concentric  circles,  to  which,  founding  his  opinion  on 
the  formerly  received  data,  he  assigned  an  antiquity  of 
1,700  years.  But  here  again  Charnay  comes  to  totally  dif- 
ferent conclusions.  He  had  a  shrub  cut  down,  eighteen 
months  old  at  most,  and  found  in  it  eighteen  of  these  cir- 
cles. His  first  thought  was,  that  he  had  come  upon  an 
anomaly  ;  but  after  having  several  trees  of  different  kinds 
and  sizes  cut  down,  he  found  in  all  of  them  similar  phenom- 
ena in  similar  proportions. 

Nor  is  this  all ;  at  the  time  of  his  first  visit  to  Palenque  in 
1859,  Charnay  had  the  trees  hiding  the  ruins  cut  down,  so 
as  to  take  more  exact  photographs.  Other  trees  grew  up  in 
their  places,  which  trees  must  have  been  twenty-two  years 
old  in  1 88 1.  On  a  section  of  one  of  these,  rather  more  than 
two  feet  in  diameter,  he  counted  230  concentric  circles. 
This  is  an  important  fact  of  vegetable  physiology,  and  proves 
that  we  cannot  estimate  the  age  of  trees  in  the  tropics  by 
the  same  process  as  we  do  that  of  those  in  northern  lati- 
tudes (which  for  that  matter  also  afford  but  imperfect  evi-' 
dence),  and  the  chief  proof  of  the  antiquity  of  the  buildings 
of  Palenque  falls  through  completely. 

It  would  take  too  long  to  describe  the  other  monuments 
of  Palenque,  which  are  known  under  the  name  of  temples.1 

1  The  great  temple  of  Palenque  bears  a  curious  resemblance  to  that  of  Boro- 
Boudor,  in  the  island  of  Java.  Edinburgh  Re-t>ic-M,  April,  1867. 


PRE-HISTOR1C  AMERICA. 

We  must,  however,  mention  one  of  them,  situated  on  the 
other  bank  of  the  Otolum,  and  known  under  the  name  of 
the  Temple  of  the  Cross.  It  rises  from  a  truncated  pyra- 
mid and  forms  a  quadrilateral  with  three  openings  in  each 
face,  separated  by  massive  pilasters,  some  ornamented  with 
hieroglyphics  and  some  ornamented  with  human  figures. 
The  frieze  is  also  covered  with  human  figures,  and  amongst 
those  still  visible  Stephens  mentions  a  head  and  two  torsos, 
which,  in  their  perfection  of  form,  recall  Greek  art.  The 
openings,  all  at  right  angles,  lead  into  an  inside  gallery  com- 
municating with  three  little  rooms.  The  central  one  of 
these  rooms  contains  an  altar,  which  fairly  represents  an 
open  chest,  ornamented  with  a  little  frieze  with  a  margin. 
From  the  two  upper  extremities  of  this  frieze  spring  two 
wings,  recalling  the  mode  of  ornamentation  so  often  em- 
ployed in  the  pediments  of  Egyptian  monuments.1 

Above  the  altar  was  originally  placed  the  tablet  of  the 
cross  (fig.  126),  which  was  afterward  torn  from  its  position 
by  the  hand  of  a  fanatic,  who  chose  to  see  in  it  the  sacred 
sign  of  the  Christian  faith,  miraculously  preserved  by  the 
ancient  inhabitants  of  the  palace.  The  tablet  was  taken 
down  and  then  abandoned,  we  know  not  why,  in  the  midst 
of  the  forest  covering  part  of  the  ruins.  Here  it  was  that 
the  Americans  discovered  part  of  it,  took  possession  of  it, 
and  carried  it  to  Washington,  where  it  forms  part  of  the 
collection  of  the  National  Museum.4  The  centre  represents 
a  cross,  resting  upon  a  hideous  figure,  and  surmounted  by  a 
grotesque  bird.  On  the  right,  a  figure  on  foot  is  offering 
presents ;  on  the  left,  another  figure,  in  a  stiff  attitude, 
seems  to  be  praying  to  the  divinity.  The  costume  of 
these  two  persons  is  unlike  any  that  is  now  in  use  ;  and 
above  their  heads  we  can  make  out  several  hieroglyphical 
characters.  A  slab  on  the  right  is  also  covered  with  them. 
In  the  present  state  of  knowledge  it  is  impossible  to  make 

1  Charnay,  loc.  cit.,  p.  417,  from  whom  we  borrow  the  greater  part  of 
these  details.  Del  Rio,  loc.  cit.,  p.  17.  Waldeck,  plate  XX.  Stephens,  loc. 
cit.,  vol.  II.,  p.  344. 

*Ch.  Rau  :  "  The  Palenque  Tablet,"  Smith  Cont.,  vol.  XXII. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  32$ 

out  whether  these  inscriptions  are  prayers  to  the  gods,  the 
history  of  the  country  or  that  of  the  temple,  the  name  or 
the  dedication  of  the  founders. 

At  the  end  of  the  sanctuary  recently  discovered  near 
Palenque'  (fig.  127,  p.  326),  by  Maler,  are  three  slabs  of 
sculptured  stone  in  low  relief.  On  the  right  and  left  are 


FIG.  126. — Tablet  of  the  cross  at  Palenque. 

hieroglyphics ;  in  the  centre  a  cross,  surmounted  by  a 
head  of  strange  appearance,  wearing  round  the  neck  a 
collar  with  a  medallion  ;  above  this  head  is  a  bird,  and  on 
either  side  are  figures  exactly  like  those  of  the  temple  of 

1  Nature,  October  4,  1879. 


1 


326 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 


327 


the  cross.  Evidently  this  was 
a  hieratic  type,  from  which  the 
artist  was  not  allowed  to  de- 
part. 

The  existence  of  the  cross  at 
Palenque,  on  one  of  the  monu- 
ments of  an  earlier  date  than  the 
introduction  of  Christianity,  is 
not  an  isolated  fact.  Palacio, 
the  judicial  assessor,  saw  at  Co- 
pan  a  cross,  with  one  of  its  arms 
broken '  ;  the  Jesuit  Ruiz  men- 
tions one  in  Paraguay ;  Garci- 
lasso  de  la  Vega,  another  at 
Cuzco  ;  and  we  have  previously 
referred  to  several  examples. 
The  cross  is  supposed  to  have 
been  looked  upon  as  the  sym- 
bol of  the  creative  and  fertilizing 
power  of  nature,  and  in  several 
places  was  honored  by  sacrifices 
of  quails,  incense,  and  lustral 
water. 

We  cannot  leave  tue  ruins  of 
Palenque  without  mentioning  a 
statue  (fig.  128),  remarkable  for 
more  than  one  reason.4  The 
calm  and  smiling  expression  of 
the  face  resembles  that  of  some 
of  the  Egyptian  statues  ;  the 
head-dress  is  a  little  like  that 
of  the  Assyrians ;  there  is  a 
necklace  around  the  neck ;  the 


FIG.  128. — Statue  from  Pelanque. 


1  "  Carta  dirigada  al  Key  de  Espafia  afio  1576,"  published  at  Albany,  with 
an  English  translation  in  1860. 

a  The  height  of  the  statue  is  10  ft.  6  in.,  and  there  was  another,  a  counterpart 
of  it.  They  were  evidently  both  intended  to  form  pilasters,  for  one  side  of  each 
was  left  in  the  rough  ;  they  were  discovered  and  figured  by  Waldeck. 


328  PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 

figure  presses  upon  its  bosom  an  instrument,  and  rests 
its  left  hand  upon  an  ornament,  the  meaning  of  both 
of  which  it  is  difficult  to  imagine.  The  plinth  of  the  statue 
has  a  cartouch  with  a  hieroglyphical  inscription, '  probably 
giving  the  name  of  the  god  or  hero  to  whom  it  was  dedi- 
cated. 

There  is  a  very  distinct  resemblance  in  some  of  these 
hieroglyphics  to  those  of  Egypt.  We  mention  this  without 
however  trying  to  solve,  by  a  few  accidental  resemblances, 
the  great  problem  of  the  origin  of  races,  still  less  to  establish 
the  existence  of  a  connection  between  the  inhabitants  of 
Egypt  and  those  of  Central  America  at  the  comparatively 
recent  date  of  the  erection  of  the  monuments  of  Palenque. 

Two  races  successively  bore  the  name  of  Quiche.  The 
old  Quiches  of  Maya  origin,  to  whom  we  owe  the  monu- 
ments of  Copan  and  of  Quirigua,  and  the  Cakchiquel 
Quiches,  who  were  probably  descended  from  the  first,  but 
had  been  greatly  modified  by  various  Nahuatl  influences. 
These  latter  still  existed  as  a  people  at  the  time  of  the 
Spanish  invasion  ;  they  offered  vigorous  resistance  to  the 
Conquistadores,  and  their  capital,  Utatlan,  was  taken  and 
destroyed. 

Copan  is  now  a  miserable  village,  a  short  distance  from 
the  ruins,  famous  alone  for  the  excellence  of  its  tobacco, 
which  rivals  that  of  Cuba.  The  ancient  town  was  situated 
at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  separating  Guatemala  from 
Honduras,"  on  the  Rio  Copan,  a  tributary  of  the  Motagua, 
which  flows  into  the  Bay  of  Honduras.  Its  ruins  have  long 
been  overgrown  by  the  dense  vegetation  of  the  forests, 
which  can  only  be  penetrated  with  axe  in  hand ;  hence  the 
oblivion  in  which  they  have  so  long  been  shrouded,  and  in 
which  they  still  remain  in  spite  of  their  great  interest.  They 

1  In  the  various  hieroglyphics  that  we  reproduce,  the  existence  can  be  made 
out  of  several  dots  in  regular  order,  separated  by  a  stroke  from  the  rest  of  the 
inscription  ;  this  is  perhaps  a  key  for  a  future  Champollion. 

'The  ruins  are  situated  in  N.  Lat.  14°  45'  and W. Long.  90"  52'.  Copan  has 
sometimes  been  confounded  with  the  town  which  in  1530  offered  so  heroic  a 
resistance  to  Hernandez  de  Chiaves. 


329 


330  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

are  first  mentioned  in  a  letter  addressed  in  1576  to  King 
Philip  II.,  by  Diego  de  Palacio ;  but  it  is  to  Stephens  that 
we  owe  the  only  complete  description  in  existence,  and 
it  is  this  description  which  is  referred  to  by  the  Abb£ 
Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  who  visited  Copan  in  1863  and 
1866.1 

In  their  present  state  the  ruins  cover  an  area  of  900  feet 
by  1, 600.  The  walls,  built  of  immense  blocks  of  stone,  and 
partly  destroyed  by  the  roots  of  trees  which  penetrate  them 
everywhere,  are  twenty-five  feet  thick  at  their  base,  and  in 
some  places  rise  in  terraces,  and  still  preserve  some  traces  of 
painting.  The  chief  building,  known  under  the  name  of  the 
temple,  is  situated  on  the  northwest  of  the  enclosure  ;  its 
form  is  that  of  a  truncated  pyramid,  the  sides  of  which  are  six 
hundred  and  twenty-four  feet  high  on  the  north  and  south, 
and  eight  hundred  and  nine  on  the  east  and  west.  The 
walls  on  the  side  facing  the  river  are  perpendicular,  and 
vary  from  sixty  to  ninety  feet  in  height ;  on  the  other 
side  they  slope  considerably.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
call  attention  to  the  resemblance  of  this  building  to  the 
mounds  of  Mississippi  and  Ohio.  The  pyramids  were  dedi- 
cated to  the  gods  of  the  Mayas,  and  it  was  on  the  platform 
crowning  them,  that  these  people  attempted  to  honor  their 
gods  by  sacrifices  which  were  too  often  bloody. 

Beyond  the  river  fragments  of  walls,  terraces,  and  pyra- 
mids, which  cannot  now  be  completely  made  out,  stretch 
away  in  the  direction  of  the  forest  ;  mountains  of  rubbish 
indicate  the  sites  of  buildings  now  crumbled,  promising  an 
ample  harvest  to  future  archaeologists."  In  one  of  the 
rooms  of  the  palace  Col.  Galindo  discovered  several 

'Besides  those  whom  we  have  already  named,  we  may  mention  among  the 
explorers,  Francisco  de  Fuentes  in  1700;  his  account  has  been  published  by 
Domingo  Juarros,  "  A  Statistical  and  Commercial  Hist,  of  Guatemala,"  Lon- 
don, 1824,  and  by  Col.  Galindo  in  1832,  fiull.  Soc.  Gtog.  de  Paris,  series 
II.,  1836,  vol.  5,  p.  267.  Stephens  and  Catherwood  visited  the  ruins  in  1839. 
Their  work  is  entitled,  "  Views  of  Ancient  Monuments  in  Central  America, 
Chiapas,  and  Yucatan,"  fol.  New  York,  1844.  Bancroft  gives  for  Copan,  as  for 
Palenque,  a  very  complete  bibliography. 

'Galindo,  "  Am.  Ant.  Soc.  Trans.,"  vol.  II.,  p.  547. 


FlG.   130. — Statue  found  amongst  the  ruins  of  Copaii, 
331 


332  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

vases  of  red  earth,  containing  bones  mixed  with  lime.1 
A  great  number  of  statues,  obelisks,  and  columns,  laden 
with  sculpture  and  hieroglyphics,4  form  the  most  inter- 
esting discoveries  made  at  Copan.  We  give  an  illustration 
of  one  of  these  statues  (fig.  130),  which  seems  to  mark  the 
zenith  of  Maya  art,  and  in  which  we  know  not  what  is  the 
most  astonishing,  the  grotesqueness  of  the  design,  the  rich- 
ness of  the  ornamentation,  or  the  delicacy  of  the  execution. 
We  may  also  mention  an  alligator,  holding  in  its  mouth  a 
figure  with  a  human  head  and  the  extremities  of  an  animal ; 
and  a  gigantic  toad  with  feet  ending  in  the  nails  of  a  cat. 

On  the  faces  of  one  of  the  pyramids  included  in  the  perime- 
ter of  the  principal  enclosure  are  rows  of  heads  (fig.  131). 
Some  of  these  are  skulls,8  others  the  heads  of  monkeys, 
which  animals  are  very  numerous  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
may  have  been  the  objects  of  the  veneration,  or  even  of  the 
worship,  of  the  inhabitants.  A  human  face  (fig.  132)  found 
near  the  temple,  also  deserves  to  be  reproduced.  The  in- 
habitants of  Copan  have  left  their  portraits  in  the  bas-reliefs, 
they  have  hewn  them  out  of  hard  stone,  they  have  modelled 
them  in  earthenware.  The  desire  of  perpetuating  his 
memory  is  a  feeling  innate  in  man  ;  we  meet  with  it  in  every 
clime  and  through  every  age. 

The  whole  of  Yucatan  is  covered  with  interesting  ruins. 
In  the  north  are  Izamal,  Ake,  Merida,  Mayapan ;  in  the 
centre,  Uxmal,  Kabah,  Labna,  and  nineteen  other  towns,  the 
extent  of  which  attest  their  importance  ;  and  in  the  east, 
Chichen-Itza,  one  of  the  wonders  of  America.  The  south- 
ern districts,  especially  that  bordering  on  Guatemala,  are  less 
known,  but  it  has  already  been  ascertained  that  brilliant  dis- 
coveries are  reserved  to  explorers  in  the  province  of  Itur- 

1  Bull.  Soc.  Geog.,  vol.  V.,  2d  series,  Paris.  1836. 

2  These  hieroglyphics  resemble  those  of  Palenque,  and  like  the  latter  are  still 
undeciphered. 

8  There  are  other  examples  of  this  style  of  decoration.  At  Nohpat  a  frieze 
has  been  found  covered  with  skulls  and  cross-bones.  Nohpat  may  have  been 
a  town  as  large  as  Uxmal ;  but  the  ruins  themselves  have  almost  entirely  dis- 
appeared. Stephens:  " Yucatan, "  vol.  II.,  p.  348. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA. 


333 


bide.  "  That  extensive  ruins  yet  lie  hidden  in  these  unex- 
plored regions  can  hardly  be  doubted  ;  indeed,  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  the  grandest  cities,  even  in  the  settled 
and  partially  explored  part  of  the  peninsula,  have  yet  been 
described."  '  Bancroft's  prediction  has  been  verified,  and 
while  this  volume  was  in  press,  Charnay  discovered,  on  the 
borders  of  the  province  of  Pachualko,  and  of  the  country 
claimed  by  Guatemala,  a  town  in  ruins,  containing  monu- 
ments of  the  same  style  as  those  of  Palenque.  The  origin 
and  the  name  of  this  town  are  alike  entirely  unknown,  and 
Charnay  thought  himself  authorized  to  call  it  Lorillard  City. 
The  decoration  consists  chiefly  of 
stucco,  which  is  in  a  very  bad  con- 
dition ;  the  skilful  explorer  was, 
however,  able  to  remove  five  bas- 
reliefs,  and  take  casts  frorn^  them. 
As  at  Palenque,  we  find  a  cruciform 
symbol ;  but  it  resembles  rather  the 
Buddhist  than  the  Christian  cross.8 
Most  of  these  ruins  have  been 
described,  so  we  content  ourselves 
with  giving  a  rapid  summary  of 
the  most  important  of  them. 

One   preliminary   remark  must 
be    made.       There     are    notable 


FIG.  131. — Head  of  a  monkey  on 
a  pyramid  at  Copan. 


differences  between  the  monuments  of  Chiapas  and  those 
of  Yucatan.  "  The  mode  of  construction  of  Palenque," 
says  M.  Viollet-le-Duc,  "  did  not  consist,  as  at  Chichen-Itza, 
or  Uxmal,  in  facings  of  dressed  stone  in  front  of  cyclopean 
masonry ;  but  in  covering  the  masonry  with  coatings  of 
ornamented  stucco  and  with  large  slabs." 

The  character  of  the  sculpture  at  Palenque  is  far  from 
possessing  the  energy  of  that  met  with  in  the  buildings  of 
Yucatan.  The  types  of  the  persons  represented  differ  yet 
more.  They  have  features  very  dissimilar  to  those  of  the 

'Bancroft,  /.  <:.,  vol.  IV.,  p.  148. 

'Hamy :    Soc.  of  Geog.,  meeting  of  January  2,  1882. 


334  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Aryan  race  at  Palenque.  They  sensibly  resemble  it  at 
Chichen-Itza.  Lastly,  it  is  only  in  the  monuments  of  Yuca- 
tan that  we  can  trace  the  influence  of  earlier  construction  in 
wood.1 

"  Nothing,"  adds  Charnay,  after  his  first  exploration, 
"can  vie  with  the  richness,  grandeur,  and  harmony  of  the 
buildings  of  Uxmal.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  founders 
of  the  ancient  towns  of  Yucatan  were  descended  from  the 
inhabitants  of  Palenque,  or  at  least  that  their  civilization 
grew  out  of  that  much  more  ancient  one." 


FIG.  132. — Fragment  found  near  the  temple  of  Copan. 

To  these  very  just  remarks  we  must  add,  that  at  Copan 
these  differences  can  already  be  established.  The  sculp- 
tures, and  the  ornaments  covering  them,  differ  from  those 
of  Palenque,  and  more  nearly  approach  those  we  are  about 
to  describe  at  Uxmal  and  at  Chichen-Itza.  Here,  then,  we 
have  the  point  of  union  between  two  modes  of  structure, 
which  differ  in  appearance  alone. 

The  origin  of  the  name  of  Uxmal  is  unknown.  The  ruins 
are  about  thirty-five  miles  from  Merida,  and  cover  a  consid- 

1  Viollet-le-Duc,  Int.,  p.  97,  after  Charnay:  "Cites  et  Ruines  Ame'ri- 
caines."  We  must  say,  however,  in  regard  to  the  reference  he  makes  to  the 
Aryans,  that  so  far  there  is  nothing  to  justify  any  one  in  connecting  the  Aryan 
with  the  American  races. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  335 

crable  area.1  The  Casa  del  Gobernador  (fig.  133),  the  most 
remarkable  of  all,  rises  from  a  natural  eminence  artificially 
enlarged  by  means  of  rubble  masonry,  and  cut  by  three  suc- 
cessive terraces ;  the  walls  are  of  rough  stone,  cemented 
with  very  hard  mortar.  The  Casa  itself  is  three  hundred 
and  twenty-two  feet  long  by  thirty-nine  wide  and  about 
twenty-six  high.  The  interior  includes  a  double  corridor, 
the  section  of  which  recalls  that  which  we  have  described  at 
Palenque  (fig.  125),  and  several  rooms  of  very  varying  di- 
mensions. The  walls  of  these  rooms  are  of  rough  stone, 
without  traces  of  painting  or  sculpture  ;  in  one  or  two  places 
only  are  there  traces  of  plaster.  The  doors  were  surrounded 
with  lintels  of  sapotilla  wood,  and  one  of  these  lintels,  cov- 
ered with  finely  under-cut  ornaments,  is  in  the  National 
Museum  at  Washington. 

All  the  richness  of  ornamentation  was  reserved  for  the 
external  walls.  At  about  one  third  of  the  height  a  frieze 
runs  round  the  building,  presenting  a  series  of  curved  lines, 
arabesques,  and  ornaments  of  every  kind  of  execution,  as 
capricious  as  it  is  grotesque.2  Amongst  these  ornaments 
Greek  frets  are  prominent ;  this  type  of  ornament,  so  com- 
mon for  centuries  in  Europe,  furnishes  yet  another  proof  of 
the  similarity  of  the  genius  of  man,  everywhere  and  at  all 
times,  as  manifested  in  the  least  important  of  his  works. 

Amongst  these  ornaments  some  elephant-trunks  are  sup- 
posed to  have  been  made  out ;  this  would  be  a  curious  fact,3 
if  true,  for  the  elephant  was  certainly  not  living  in  America 
at  the  time  of  the  erection  of  the  monuments  of  Uxmal. 
His  memory  must  then  have  been  preserved  in  a  permanent 
tradition,  and  it  is  possible  that  this  may  turn  out  to  be  an 

1  Waldeck  :  "  Voy.  pittoresque  et  arch,  dans  la  Prov.  de  Yucatan,"  fol., 
Paris,  1838.  Norman  :  "  Rambles  in  Yucatan,"  New  York,  1843.  Baron  von 
Friederickstahl :  "  Les  Monuments  du  Yucatan,"  1841.  Charnay  :  "  Cites  et 
Ruines  Americaines,"  Paris,  1863.  Bancroft:  "Native  Races,"  vol.  IV.,  p. 
149.  Short :  "  North  Americans  of  Antiquity,"  p.  347. 

1  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  :  "  Hist,  des  Nat.  Civ.  du  Mexique  et  de  1'Am. 
Centrale,"  vol.  II.,  p.  23. 

"'  We  meet  with  this  ornament  at  the  Casa  Grande  of  Zaya,  at  a  short  distance 
from  Uxmal.     It  is  possible  that  the  sculptures  may  relate  to  the  tapir. 


336 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


indication  of  the  Asiatic  origin  of  the  civilization  under 
notice. 

Other  animals  also  served  as  models  to  the  workmen ;  at 
the  Casa  de  Tortuguas  the  decoration  consists  of  an  imitation 
of  palisades  formed  of  round  wooden  posts.  Tortoises  in 
relief  are  the  sole  interruption  to  the  horizontal  line  of  the 
upper  frieze. 

In  front  of  the  palace,  a  round  stone  several  yards  high, 


FIG.    133. — Casa  del  Gobernador,  Uxmal. 

without  ornaments,  without  even  a  trace  of  human  workman- 
ship, rises  like  a  column  ;  other  similar  stones  were  erected 
in  various  parts  of  the  town.  Some  think  these  are  phallic 
emblems,  and  hence  conclude  that  the  ancient  people  of 
Yucatan  were  devotees  of  the  phallic  cultus.  But  Brasseur 
de  Bourbourg  (/.  c.,  vol.  IV.,  p.  67)  tells  us  that  the  natives 
call  these  stone  picotes  and  think  they  were  intended  to  b"e 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  337 

used  as  whipping-posts.  Would  it  not  be  more  natural 
to  look  upon  these  stones  as  gnomons,  similar  to  those  we 
shall  have  to  describe  later  in  speaking  of  the  monuments 
of  Peru  ? 

The  Casa  de  Monjas  is  looked  upon  as  the  most  remark- 
able building  of  Central  America.  It  presents  considerable 
resemblance  with  the  Casa  del  Gobernador.  Here  too  we  see 
the  traditional  mound,  surmounted  by  a  platform,  on  which 
rise  four  different  buildings  surrounding  a  court.1  These 
buildings  contain  eighty-eight  rather  small  rooms,  at  regular 
intervals,  reminding  us  of  the  pueblos  of  New  Mexico.  The 
inside  walls  are  bare  and  doors  are  altogether  wanting.  It 
is  evident  that  the  inhabitants,  protected  by  their  poverty, 
or  perhaps  by  the  sanctity  of  the  spot,  lived  in  complete 
security. 

The  outer  walls  are  adorned  with  a  vast  frieze  in  which 
the  grandeur  and  originality  of  native  art  are  alike  displayed. 
"  Every  alternate  door "  says  Charnay  (p.  364),  "  is  sur- 
rounded by  a  niche  of  marvellous  workmanship  ;  these  were 
to  be  occupied  by  statues.  As  for  the  frieze  itself,  it  is 
a  remarkable  collection  of  pavillions  in  which  curious  figures 
of  idols  grow,  as  if  by  accident,  out  of  the  arrangement 
of  stones,  and  remind  us  of  the  enormous  sculptured  heads 
of  the  palace  of  Chichen-Itza  ;  finely  executed  curved  bands  in 
stone  serve  as  frames  to  them,  and  vaguely  suggest  hiero- 
glyphic characters  ;  then  follows  a  succession  of  Greek  frets 
of  large  size,  alternating  at  the  angles  with  squares  and 
little  rosettes  of  admirable  finish."  It  is  estimated  that  all 
these  sculptures  cover  an  area  of  twenty-four  thousand 
square  feet ;  no  two  are  alike,  and  the  artist  has  everywhere 
been  able  to  give  free  scope  to  his  imagination. 

The  western  building  is  the  most  remarkable  of  this  col- 
lection of  structures  but  unfortunately  a  great  part  of  it  has 
crumbled  away.  The  left  wing,  Casa  de  la  Culebra,  still 

1  The  measurements  of  these  buildings  given  by  different  explorers  differ  con- 
siderably among  themselves.  Bancroft  (vol.  IV.,  p.  174)  gives  them  all.  We 
refer  the  reader  to  him. 


338  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

standing,  represents  a  huge  rattlesnake,  running  all  along 
the  facade,  the  interlacing  coils  of  its  body  serving  as  frames 
to  different  panels.1 

The  northern  building,  rising  from  a  platform  about  twenty 
feet  high,  dominates  the  whole  court.2  It  was  surrounded  by 
thirteen  towers,  each  seventeen  feet  in  height,  loaded  with 
ornaments.  Of  these  towers  four  only  were  still  standing  at 
the  time  of  Stephens'  visit.  On  these  towers  two  figures 
were  noticed  exhibiting  priapism  ;  this  fact  would  tend 
to  confirm  the  existence  of  the  phallic  cultus  at  tlxmal. 

In  some  places,  better  protected  against  the  inclemency 
of  the  weather,  traces  have  been  made  out  of  pictures  drawn 
with  a  rich  and  brilliant  red.3 

The  purpose  of  the  Casa  de  Monjas  is  quite  unknown.  It 
has,  however,  been  supposed  that  it  was  the  residence  of 
Maya  virgins,  who,  like  the  Roman  vestals  or  the  Peruvian 
Mamacunas,  kept  up  the  sacred  fire.  There  is  nothing 
either  to  confirm  or  to  contradict  this  idea.  Amongst  the 
other  buildings  of  Uxmal,  we  will  mention  the  Casa  del  Adi- 
vino,  with  the  outer  walls  painted  in  different  colors,  rising 
from  a  pyramid  eighty-eight  feet  high,  and  built  of  rubble 
set  in  mortar.  The  Casa  del  Enano,  or  "house  of  the 
dwarf,"  says  Charnay,  "  consists  of  a  structure  with  two  in- 
ner rooms  and  a  sort  of  chapel  below.  This  little  piece  is 
chiselled  like  a  jewel."  Waldeck  (p.  96)  says  it  is  a  master- 
piece of  art  and  elegance.  "  Loaded  with  ornaments  more 
rich,  more  elaborate  and  carefully  executed  than  those  of 
any  other  edifice  in  Uxmal." 4  Besides  these  there  are 
the  Tolokh-eis,  or  holy  mountain,  and  the  Kingsborough 
pyramid.  At  a  short  distance  from  the  town  are  other  ruins, 
dating  probably  from  the  same  period,  of  the  same  style  of 
architecture,  and  rising  invariably  from  mounds  which  form 
a  lower  platform.  This  was  evidently  a  general  custom,  and 
extended  from  the  temple  of  the  gods  to  the  chief's  houses. 

'Charnay,  /.  c.,  p.  367. 

11  Waldeck,  /.  c.,  pi.,  XIII  and  XVIII. 

3  Stephens  :  "  Yucatan,"  vol.  II.,  p.  30. 

4  Stephens  :  "Yucatan,"  vol.  I.,  p.  313 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  339 

In  describing  the  shell-heaps,  mounds,  and  cliff-dwellings, 
we  had  frequent  occasion  to  speak  of  the  stone  or  bone  in- 
struments or  fragments  of  pottery  bearing  witness  to  the 
presence  of  man.  We  have  no  similar  discovery  to  relate, 
either  at  Palenque,  Copan,  Uxmal,  or  the  other  towns  of 
which  we  shall  have  to  speak,  and  the  excavations  hitherto 
made  have  only  yielded  a  few  flints  and  still  fewer  fragments 


Fie.  134.— Portico  at  Kabah. 

of  pottery.  It  is,  however,  impossible  that  such  monuments 
could  have  been  created  without  an  important  population 
and  a  long  residence.  Why  have  the  weapons,  implements, 
and  vases  disappeared  ?  Why  do  the  graves  of  the  builders 
of  the  monuments  render  up  none  of  their  bones  ?  No  re- 
ply is  as  yet  possible  ;  we  can  but  collect  facts,  leaving  those 
who  shall  come  after  us  the  task  of  drawing  conclusions  from 


340  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

them.  It  is  likely,  however,  that  the  mere  rubbish  heaps 
might,  as  in  civilized  cities,  have  been  removed  to  a  distance 
for  sanitary  reasons.  We  must  recollect  that  the  ruins  of 
an  ordinary  town  would  yield  few  weapons  or  implements 
to  an  excavator  five  centuries  hence. 

The  ruins  of  Kabah  and  Labna,  very  near  those  of  Ux- 
mal,  deserve  a  moment's  attention.  At  Kabah  a  pyramid 
measuring  180  square  feet  at  the  base,  and  a  portico  (fig.  134) 
recalling  a  Roman  structure,  rise  before  the  traveller.  How 
did  this  souvenir  of  ancient  Rome  come  to  be  in  the  midst 
of  a  solitude  in  the  New  World  ?  And  how  can  we  help  ad- 
miring the  marvellous  unity  of  the  genius  of  marj,  leading 
him  constantly  to  arrive  at  identical  results  ?  We  can  never 
weary  of  calling  attention  to  this.  It  is  one  of  the  chief  in- 
terests of  our  study.1 

The  buildings  of  Labna  were  no  less  remarkable  than  those 
of  Uxmal ;  but  unfortunately  they  are  in  a  state  of  ex- 
treme decay.3  The  chief  building  was  covered  with  stucco 
ornaments,  which  are  breaking  off  and  rapidly  disappearing. 
One  can  still  make  out  a  row  of  skulls,  some  bas-reliefs 
representing  human  figures,  and  a  globe  of  considerable  di- 
ameter upheld  by  two  men,  one  of  whorti  is  kneeling. 
All  these  figures  retain  some  traces  of  color. 

At  Zayi,  the  Casa  Grande  has  three  stories,  each 
smaller  than  the  one  below  it ;  the  first  measures  265 
feet  by  120;  the  second,  220  by  60;  the  third,  150  by 
1 8.  A  staircase  thirty-two  feet  wide,  and  somewhat  like 
those  met  with  in  various  parts  of  Yucatan,  leads  up  to 
the  third  story. 

Chichen-Itza,  one  of  the  few  towns  which  has  preserved 
its  ancient  Maya  name,  from  chicken,  opening  of  a  well,  and 
lisa,  one  of  the  chief  branches  of  the  Maya  race,  was  a 
dependency  of  the  Mayapan  confederacy.  On  the  destruc- 

1  Stephens,  loc.  cit.,  vol.  I.,  p.  398.  Baldwin:  "Ancient  America,"  New 
York,  1872,  p.  139. 

8  Stephens,  loc.  cit.,  vol.  II.,  p.  16  :  "  The  summits  of  the  neighboring  hills 
are  capped  with  gray,  broken  walls  for  many  miles  around."  Norman  :  "  Ram* 
bles  in  Yucatan,"  p.  150. 


THE  RUINS  01-'  CENTKAL  AMERICA.  34! 

tion  of  the  latter  in  the  fifteenth  century,  it  managed  to 
maintain  its  independence,  and  it  was  not  until  two  centuries 
after  the  conquest,  on  the  I3th  of  March,  1697,  that  it  was 
taken  by  the  Spanish  and  given  over  to  pillage  ;  from  this 
period  dates  its  complete  destruction.1 

Over  an  area  of  several  miles  we  see  nothing  but  artificial 
mounds,  overturned  columns,  of  which  no  less  than  480 
bases  have  been  counted,  broken  sculptures,  rude  colon- 
nades, the  length  of  which  astonishes  us,  and  masses  of 
rubbish,  the  last  form  assumed  by  the  monuments  that 
man,  in  his  pride,  thought  he  had  built  for  eternity. 
Chichen  was  one  of  the  chief  religious  centres  of  Yucatan  ; 
hence  its  importance  and  the  number  and  magnificence  of 
its  temples  and  buildings.2  Amongst  those  still  standing, 
we  may  mention  the  circus,  castle,  palace  of  the  nuns,  the 
Caracol  or  spiral  staircase,  and  the  Chichanchob,  or  the  Red 
house,  as  they  are  now  called. 

The  circus  was  probably  nothing  but  a  gymnasium,  in 
which  the  young  men  met  for  trials  of  strength,  skill,  and 
agility.  The  monument  formerly  included  two  parallel 
pyramids,  extending  about  350  feet.  That  on  the  left,  still 
well  preserved,  is  covered  with  paintings.  These  represent 
processions  of  warriors  or  of  priests,  some  carrying  weapons  ; 
some  offerings ;  they  have  black  beards,  and  they  wear 
strange  head-dresses  on  their  heads,  and  wide  tunics  on  their 
shoulders.  The  colors  employed  are  black,  red,  yellow,  and 
white.  The  bas-reliefs  are  remarkable  ;  all  the  faces  are  of 
the  present  Yucatan  type,  and  contrast  strongly  with  the 
pointed  heads  and  retreating  foreheads  represented  at 
Palenque,  and  which  are  said  to  be  still  met  with  amongst 
the  inferior  mountain  races. 

1  Landa,  Bishop  of  Merida,  who  died  in  1579  :  "  Relacion  de  las  Cosas  de 
Yucatan,"  p.  340.  Fried rickstahl :  "  Nouv.  Annales  des  Voyages,"  1841,  p. 
300,  et  seq.  Stephens:  "  Yucatan,"  vol.  II.,  p.  282.  Norman:  "Rambles 
in  Yucatan,"  p.  104.  Charnay,  /.  c.,  p.  339.  Baron  Friederichstahl  visited  the 
ruins  in  1840,  Stephens  and  Norman  in  1842,  Charnay,  in  1858. 

1  "  A  city  which  I  hazard  little  in  saying  must  have  been  one  of  the  largest 
the  world  has  ever  seen."  Norman:  "  Rambles,"  p.  108. 


342 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


The  palace  of  the  nuns  rests  upon  a  base  of  masonry  32 
feet  high,  and  160  by  112  wide.  The  bujlding,  which  is 
reached  by  a  wide  staircase,  was  two  stories  high  ;  the  walls 
are  ornamented  with  rich  sculptures,  similar  to  those  of 
Uxmal,  and  the  door  has  an  ornamentation  of  stone  tur- 
rets, which  we  cannot  better  compare  than  with  Chinese  or 
Japanese  structures.  A  protestant  missionary,  Hardy,  has 
("Indian  Monachism,"  p.  122)  called  attention  to  the  resem- 
blance between  the  buildings  of  Chichen  and  the  topes  or 
dagobas  of  the  Buddhists. 


FIG.  135. — Jamb  ornament  of  a  door  of  the  castle  at  Chichen-Itza. 

Inside  is  a  room  forty-seven  feet  long,  with  walls  coated 
with  plaster,  on  which  can  be  made  out,  though  they  have 
suffered  greatly  from  damp,  some  men  crowned  with 
feathers. 

The  name  of  castle  has  been  given  to  a  pyramid  the  base 
of  which  measures  197  feet  by  202.  Its  height  is  75  feet, 
and  it  ends  in  a  platform  reached  by  a  staircase,  enclosed  by 
a  balustrade,  covered  with  serpents'  heads ;  from  this  plat- 
form rises  a  building  49  feet  by  43,  the  chief  door  of  which 
faces  northward.  The  jambs  of  this  door  are  of  stone  and 


THE   RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 


343 


covered  with  sculptures.  We  reproduce  one  of  these  bas- 
reliefs  (fig.  135),  which  may  give  an  idea  of  the  face  and  the 
head-dress  of  the  inhabitants.  The  ornament  fastened  to  the 
nose  is  particularly  characteristic.  The  internal  arrange- 
ment, of  which  the  ground-plan  (fig.  136)  enables  us  to 
judge,  differs  from  any  thing  we  have  yet  noticed. 

The  Chichanchob,1  or  Red  house,  (fig.  137)  is  the  best-pre- 
served monument  of  Chichen.  It  includes  only  one  dwell- 
ing, placed  on  a  pyramid  of  moderate  height,  with  three 
doors  facing  west,  lighting  a  gallery  of  the  same  height  as 
the  structure.  This  gallery  gives  access  to  three  rooms 
which  are  only  lighted  through  their  doors.  Charnay,  who 
mentions  this,  adds  that  he 
has  never  noticed  any  win- 
dows in  the  numerous  ruins 
of  Yucatan  visited  by  him. 

The  Caracal  is  a  circular 
building  only  twenty-two  feet 
in  diameter.  The  inside  re- 
calls the  estufas  met  with 
among  the  Cliff  Dwellers,  and 
consists  of  a  mass  of  masonry 


FIG.  136. — Ground  plan  of  the  castle 
of  Chichen-Itza.  a,  square  pillars 
in  the  centre  of  the  principal  room. 
i>,  columns  supporting  the  northern 
door. 


with  a  very  narrow  double 
corridor.  The  building  rises 
from  two  artificial  terraces 
placed  one  upon  the  other. 
The  lower  terrace,  according  to  Stephens,  measures  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-three  feet  by  one  hundred  and  fifty,  the  up- 
per terrace  thirty  feet  by  fifty-five.  A  flight  of  twenty  steps, 
forty-five  feet  in  length,  leads  from  the  first  to  the  second, 
and  is  ornamented  with  a  balustrade  which  represents  inter- 
laced serpents.  The  serpent  plays  an  important  part  in  the 
architecture  of  Chichen-Itza.  We  meet  it  at  every  turn,  and 
it  is  not  difficult  to  see  in  it  a  religious  symbol. 

We  cannot  exaggerate  the  richness  of  the  sculptures ;  the 

'We   do  not   know   why    the    Indians  give   to   this   building  the  name  of 
la  Carcel,  the  prison. 


344 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


church  built  for  the  Indians  is  filled  with  bas-reliefs  taken 
from  these  ruins.  The  paintings  are  even  more  numerous 
than  the  sculptures ;  everywhere  can  be  made  out  long  pro- 
cessions of  men  and  animals,  defiles,  battles,  struggles  be- 
tween a  man  and  a  tiger  or  a  serpent,  trees,  houses.1  One 
of  these  paintings  on  the  walls  of  the  circus  represents 
a  boat  somewhat  resembling  a  Chinese  junk,  and  is  the  only 
example  thus  far  known  of  the  mode  of  navigation  of  these 
ancient  people.  Stephens  says,  speaking  of  this  boat,  "  that 
it  is  the  greatest  gem  of  aboriginal  art  which,  on  the  whole 
continent  of  America,  now  survives." 


FIG.  137. — Chichanchob  at  Clychen-Itza. 

Nor  are  hieroglyphics  wanting.  In  form  they  resemble 
those  of  Copan.  Like  the  latter  they  are  still  undeciphered, 
and  we  know  of  but  one  exception,  which  we  quote  with  all 
due  reservation,  and  then  only  since  it  has  been  published  by 
the  authority  of  an  important  scientific  body,  the  American 
Antiquarian  Society.2 

1  Stephens:  "Yucatan,"  vol.  II.,  pp.  303,  305. 

'Salisbury:  "The  Mayas,  the  Sources  of  their  History,"  Worcester,  1877. 
"Maya  Arch.,"  Worcester,  1879.  Short:  "North  Americans,"  pp.  396, 
et  seq.  Letter  of  Dr.  Le  Plongeon,  of  Jan.  15,  1878.  Proc.  Am.  Antiq.  Soc., 
Oct.  21,  1878. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  345 

Before  relating  this  discovery  it  will  be  well  to  tell 
the  legend  on  which  it  is  founded.  Chaak  Mool,  also  known 
under  the  name  of  Balam,  the  tiger  chief,  was  one  of  three 
brothers  who  shared  between  them  the  government  of 
Yucatan.  He  had  married  Kinich  Katm6,  a  woman  of 
marvellous  beauty,  who  inspired  Aak,  one  of  her  brothers-in- 


FIG.  138. — Bas-relief  found  by  Dr.  Le  Plongeon  at  Chichen-Itza. 

law,  with  ardent  love.  This  Aak,  to  obtain  her  hand, 
did  not  hesitate  to  have  her  husband  assassinated  ;  but 
Kinich  remained  faithful  to  the  memory  of  Chaak,  and 
her  conjugal  piety  led  her  to  have  his  statue  made,  and 
to  adorn  her  palace  with  paintings  representing  the  chief 
events  in  his  life  and  the  sad  scene  of  his  death.  In  one  of 


346 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


these  paintings  Aak  holds  in  his  hand  three  spears,  which 
symbolize  the  three  wounds  inflicted  on  his  brother.  The 
Assyrian  type  is  supposed  by  some  to  be  recognizable  in  the 
three  personages  who  are  represented  three  quarters  of  the 
size  of  life.  Beside  them  we  see  three  tall  men,  with 
rather  small  heads,  thick  lips,  and  woolly  hair,  in  which  some 
see  examples  of  the  negro  type. 

Dr.  Le  Plongeon,  who  visited  the  ruins  of  Chichen-Itza 
in  1875  tells  us  that  he  succeeded  in  deciphering  part  of  the 
hieroglyphics  accompanying  the  figures;  from  which  he 
learned  that  the  tornb  of  Chaak  Mool  was  to  be  found  at  a 


FIG.  139. — Statue  of  Chaak  Mool,  found  at  Chichen-Itza. 

place  pointed  out,  about  435  yards  from  the  palace.  Ex- 
cavations were  undertaken,  and  succcessively  brought  to 
light  several  bas-reliefs,  representing  feline  animals  or  birds 
of  prey  (fig.  138);  a  figure  in  the  form  of  a  tiger  with  a 
human  face ;  about  twenty  feet  lower  down  a  stone  urn, 
with  a  terra-cotta  lid,  filled  with  ashes  which  no  one  seems 
to  have  thought  of  analyzing ;  and  lastly  the  statue  of  a  man 
reclining  upon  a  sepulchral  stone  (fig.  139).  The  type  of 
the  face,  the  costume,  the  head-dress,  do  not  resemble  those 
seen,  either  at  Chichen-Itza  or  in  the  other  towns  of  Yuca- 
tan ;  and  to  specify  one  point  only,  the  sandals  are  like  those 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  347 

found  on  the  feet  of  the  Guancho  mummies  of  the  Canary 
Islands. 

Dr.  Le  Plongeon  was  not  to  reap  the  fortunate  result  of  his 
excavations ;  the  Mexican  Government  took  possession  of 
the  statue,  which  is  now  in  the  National  Museum  of  Mexico. 

This  is  not  an  isolated  discovery  ;  several  similar  statues 
are  known,  one  of  which,  also  part  of  the  collections 
of  the  National  Museum,  was  found  in  Mexico  itself1; 
another  comes  from  Tlascala ;  and  a  smaller  Chaak  Mool 
from  Merida.  This  recurrence  of  the  same  figure  at 
different  places,  at  a  distance  from  each  other,  leads 
us  to  suppose  that  it  represents  not  a  legendary  king  of 
Chichen-Itza,  but  an  as  yet  unknown  divinity.  This  is 
Charnay's  feeling.  "  The  statue  of  Yucatan,"  he  tells  us, 
"  cannot  represent  a  king,  for  it  is  impossible  to  admit  that 
a  king  of  Yucatan  was  venerated  as  a  god  at  Mexico  or  at 
Tlascala."  2 

Many  pages  would  be  required  to  describe  all  the  innumer- 
able ruins  covering  Yucatan3;  worthy  of  mention  is  a 
gigantic  head,  the  Cara  Gigantesca  (fig.  140)  which  is  re- 
markable for  its  expression  ;  it  is  made  of  a  kind  of  coarse 
rubble  masonry,  the  blocks  of  which  have  been  skilfully 
turned  to  account  by  the  sculptor  in  forming  the  cheeks, 
mouth,  nose,  and  eyes  ;  the  head  has  been  finished  in  a 
stucco  so  hard  as  to  have  lasted  for  centuries.  This  head  is 
seven  feet  high.  Charnay  mentions  another,  of  the  same 
cyclopean  character,  surrounded  by  strange  ornaments  ;  it  is 
larger  than  the  one  we  reproduce,  being  twelve  feet  high. 
In  a  second  journey  Charnay  discovered  a  bas-relief,  which 
he  characterizes  as  more  beautiful  than  any  that  have  as 

1  Letter  from  the  Rev.  John  Butler,  of  the  loth  of  October,  1878.  Butler 
looks  upon  the  statue  found  at  Mexico  as  more  ancient  than  those  of  Chichen  ; 
but  as  he  does  not  give  the  grounds  for  his  opinion,  we  cannot  do  more  than 
quote  it.  See  also  Short,  /.  f.,  p.  399.  Revue  d*  Ethnographic,  vol.  I.,  p.  163. 

*  Revue  d 'Ethnographic,  vol.  I.,  p.  167. 

3  We  should  perhaps  mention  Ake,  with  its  cyclopean  walls,  made  of  huge 
blocks  of  rough  stone,  which  Stephens,  one  of  the  few  explorers  who  have 
visited  them,  considers  the  most  ancient  ruins  of  the  district.  ("  Yucatan,"  vol. 
I.,  p.  127. 


348 


PRE-II1STORIC  AMERICA. 


yet  been  found.  The  chief  subject,  unfortunately  damaged, 
represents  a  feline  animal  with  a  human  head,  perfectly 
modelled.  On  the  left  of  the  animal  are  some  grotesque 
decorations,  reminding  us  of  the  ornaments  of  Palenqueand 
Uxmal.1  The  head  figured  was  discovered  at  Izamal,  one 
of  the  sacred  towns  of  Yucatan,  where  Zamna,  the  compan- 
ion aiid  disciple  of  Votan,  is  said  to  be  buried.  According 
to  the  accounts  of  the  Indians,  the  prophet  Zamna  was 
buried  beneath  several  pyramids.  That  on  the  northeast 


FIG.  140. — Cara  Gigantesca  found  at  Izamal. 

(Kab-ul,  the  industrious  hand)  contains  his  right  hand. 
The  head  is  buried  beneath  the  northern  pyramid  (KinicJi- 
Kakmo  the  sun  with  rays  of  fire).  The  heart  is  beneath  the 
third,  from  which  now  rises  a  church  and  Franciscan  convent. 
This  pyramid  is  called  Ppapp-hol-chak,  the  house  of  heads 
and  lightnings. 

It  is  to  Zamna  that  the  Yucatecs  ascribed  all  their  pro- 
gress ;  tradition  attributes  to  him  the  invention  of  hiero- 
glyphic writing,  and  he  was  the  first  to  teach  the  people  to 
give  a  name  to  men  and  to  things. 

1  Letter  from  Merida  of  the  28th,  Jan.  1882.    Rev.  d'Ethn.,  vol.  I.,  p.  160. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  349 

Besides  the  Cara  Gigantesca,  Izamal  possesses  several 
pyramids.  One  of  them  is  from  700  to  800  feet  long,  and 
contains,  like  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  several  chambers ; 
it  is  considered  the  most  important  building  in  the  district.1 
These  pyramids  are  rapidly  disappearing ;  Bishop  Landa  * 
counted  eleven  or  twelve  at  the  time  of  the  conquest, 
and  even  then  the  temples  crowning  them  were  in  ruins. 

The  accounts  of  Spanish  historians3  leave  no  doubt  of 
the  existence  of  roads,  made  for  the  convenience  of  travel- 
lers, and  above  all  to  give  access  to  the  religious  centres. 
Some  of  them  extended  beyond  the  limits  of  Yucatan, 
and  stretched  into  the  neighboring  kingdoms  of  Guate- 
mala, Chiapas,  and  Tabasco.  Some  of  these  roads  were 
paved  ;  such  were  the  Calzadas  spoken  of  by  Cogolludo  and 
Bishop  Landa,  which  led  to  Chichen-Itza,  Uxmal,  Izamal, 
and  to  Tihoo,  the  ruins  of  which  have  been  used  to  build  the 
modern  town  of  Merida.  These  last  highways  measure 
from  between  seven  and  eight  yards  in  width ;  they  are 
made  of  blocks  of  stone,  covered  with  very  well-preserved 
mortar  and  a  layer  of  cement  about  two  inches  thick.  The 
rivers  were  spanned  by  bridges  of  masonry  ;  Clavigero,4  who 
traversed  the  whole  of  Mexico  during  the  last  century,  speaks 
of  having  seen  still  standing,  in  many  places,  the  massive  piers 
intended  to  support  them. 

We  will  close  what  we  have  to  say  of  the  Maya  monu- 
ments with  one  general  observation  :  Their  number  and 
their  dimensions,  the  taste  governing  their  design  and  the 
richness  of  their  ornamentation,  strike  even  the  most  super- 
ficial observer.  The  progress  made  by  these  little  known 
races  in  ceramic  art,  the  manufacture  of  textile  fabrics  and 
embroidery,  and  all  the  technical  or  industrial  arts  is  not  less 
remarkable. 

There  is  no  doubt  that,  at  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  the 

1  Stephens  :   "  Yucatan,"  vol.  II.,  p.  434. 
*  "  Relacion  de  las  cosas  de  Yucatan,"  p.  326. 

8  Landa,  /.  c. ,  p.  344.    Cogolludo  :  "  Hist,  de  Yucatan, "p.  193.     Chamay  : 
"  Cites  et  Ruines  Americaines,"  p.  321. 
4  "Storia  antica  del  Messico,"  vol.  II.,  p.  371. 


35°  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Spaniards,  the  Indians  were  in  some  respects  superior  to  the 
Conquistadores ;  but  the  latter  had  horses  and  gunpowder, 
and  were,  moreover,  endowed  with  a  superior  energy.  The 
Indians  succumbed  in  an  unequal  struggle,  and  rapidly  be- 
came the  prey  of  the  avaricious  strangers,  incapable  even  of 
understanding  the  culture  they  were  about  to  destroy. 

The  buildings  erected  by  the  Nahuas  were,  according  to 
historians,  more  important  than  those  of  the  Mayas.  We 
have  described  the  courts  of'  the  rulers  of  Tenotchitlan  and 
Tezcuco :  their  dwellings  probably  corresponded  with  the  mag- 
nificence of  their  temples,  but  have  perished.  The  rage  of 
the  Spaniards,  irritated  as  they  were  by  an  unexpected  re- 
sistance, together  with  the  gloomy  fanaticism  of  the  priests 
and  monks  accompanying  the  army,  were  the  chief  causes  of 
a  destruction  for  ever  irreparable.  The  ruins  that  still  re- 
main standing,  sole  witnesses  of  the  past,  add  to  our  regrets. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  describe  or  even  to  enumerate 
them  all.  We  therefore  select  from  them  such  as  may  serve 
as  a  type  of  Nahuatl  architecture,  and  best  help  us  to  un- 
derstand the  manners  and  religion  of  the  Nahuas. 

The  pyramid  of  Cholula  l  is  situated  in  a  miserable  village, 
about  ten  miles  from  Puebla  de  los  Angeles.  A  magnificent 
temple,  dedicated  according  to  some  to  the  sun,  according 
to  others  to  Quetzacoatl,  rose  from  the  platform  crowning 
the  pyramid,  but  it  was  entirely  destroyed  by  Cortes,  after  a 
battle  which  took  place  at  the  very  foot  of  the  monument. 
The  pyramid  still  standing  measures  1,440  feet  square,  and 
covers  an  area  nearly  double  the  extent  of  that  of  the  great 
pyramid  of  Cheops  ;  its  height,  according  to  Humboldt,  was 
177  feet,*  and  the  summit  was  reached  by  four  successive 

1  Humboldt,  "  Essai  pol.  sur  le  roy.  de  la  Nouvelle  Espagne,"  Paris,  1811, 
p.  239,  and  "  Vues  des  Cordilleres,"  Paris,  1816,  p.  96.  Dupaix  :  "  Prem. 
Exp."  Kingsborough,  vol.  V.  and  VI.  Jones  :  "  Smith.  Cont.,"  vol.  XXII. 
Clavigero:  "  St.  Ant.  del  Messico,"  vol.  II.,  p.  33.  Clavigero  visited  Cholula 
in  1744  ;  Humboldt,  in  1803.  Bancroft  (vol.  IV.,  p.  471)  gives  as  usual  a  very 
complete  bibliography. 

'Mayer  ("Mexico  as  it  Was,"  p.  26)  says  204  feet;  Tylor  :  "  Anahuac," 
205  feet. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  35 1 

terraces.  Here  the  material  employed  was  no  longer  dressed 
stones,  as  in  Yucatan,  but  adobes  about  fifteen  inches  long, 
similar  to  those  employed  by  the  Pueblo  Indians,  cemented 
with  a  very  hard  mortar  mixed  with  little  stones  and  even 
fragments  of  pottery.  A  German  traveller '  adds  that  the 
four  faces  were  coated  with  a  cement  similar  to  that  in  use 
at  the  present  day. 

Excavations  have  shown  the  regularity  of  the  building, 
and  have  brought  to  light  a  tomb  of  slabs  of  stones,  sup- 
ported by  posts  of  cedar  wood.  Two  skeletons  rested  in 
this  tomb,  and  beside  them  lay  two  basalt  figures,  various  or- 
naments of  little  value,  and  some  fragments  of  pottery. 
The  pyramid  of  Cholula  may  therefore  have  been  a  tomb ; 
but  if  so,  its  ostentatious  structure  was  as  powerless  here  as 
in  Egypt  to  preserve  the  bones  of  its  inmates  from  the  profa- 
nation so  much  dreaded.  There  are,  however,  some  doubts 
as  to  the  purpose  of  the  pyramid.  The  skeletons  were  not 
placed  in  the  centre  of  the  monument,  into  which  the  ex- 
plorers were  not  able  to  enter.  It  has  therefore  been  sup- 
posed that  they  were  those  of  slaves,  killed  at  the  time  of 
the  erection  of  the  monuments.  M.  Bandelier  looks  upon 
the  buildings  of  Cholula  as  having  been  chiefly  defensive 
works.* 

According  to  certain  legends,  of  which  traces  are  met  with 
amongst  the  natives,  this  pyramid  was  erected  in  expecta- 
tion of  a  fresh  deluge.  Father  Duran  gives  another  version ' ; 
that  men,  dazzled  by  the  glory  of  the  sun,  had  tried  to  erect 
a  structure  which  should  reach  up  to  the  firmament  ;  the  in- 
habitants of  heaven,  indignant  at  such  audacity,  destroyed 
the  building  and  dispersed  the  builders. 

Historic  data  are  neither  more  serious  nor  more  precise 
than  legends.  The  dates  of  the  erection  of  the  pyramids 
vary  from  the  seventh  to  the  tenth  century  of  our  era. 
Cholula  was  then  an  important  town  in  the  power  of  the 

x  Heller  :    "  Reisen  in  Mexiko,"  Leipzig,  1853,  p.  131. 
2  "  Arch.  Hist,  of  America,"  Nov.,  1881. 

*  "  Hist.  Ant.  de  la  Nueva  Espana,"  vol.  I.,  chap.  I.  (The  history  was 
written  about  1585.) 


352  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Toltecs,  so  that  it  is  to  them  that  the  building  under  notice 
must  be  due. 

Xochicalco,  seventy-five  miles  northwest  of  Mexico,  is  cer- 
tainly one  of  the  most  peculiar  monuments  of  the  province.1 

In  the  centre  of  the  plain  rises  a  conical  eminence,  the 
base  of  which,  of  oval  form,  is  two  miles  in  circum- 
ference and  the  height  of  which  is  variously  estimated 
at  from  300  to  400  feet.  Two  tunnels,  pierced  in 
the  flank  of  the  hill,  open  on  the  north  ;  the  first  has 
been  penetrated  for  a  distance  of  eighty-two  feet,  where 
the  explorers  were  obliged  to  turn  back.  The  second 
tunnel  pierces  the  calcareous  mass  of  the  hill,  as  a  gal- 
lery nine  feet  and  a  half  high,  which  extends  by  various 
branches  to  a  length  of  several  hundred  feet.  A  pavement, 
no  less  than  a  foot  and  a  half  thick,  covers  the  ground  ;  the 
sides  are  strengthened  with  walls  of  masonry,  wherever  such 
works  are  necessary,  then  coated  with  cement  and  painted 
with  red  ochre.  The  principal  gallery  leads  to  a  room 
measuring  eighty  feet,  and  the  architects'  practical  knowl- 
edge of  their  art  was  such  that  they  were  able  to  contrive 
two  piers  to  give  more  solidity  to  the  roof.  In  one  of  the 
corners  of  the  room  opens  a  little  rotunda,  six  feet  in  diam- 
eter, excavated,  as  is  the  room  itself,  in  the  rock,  and  of  which 
the  dome,  in  the  form  of  a  pointed  arch,  greatly  struck  the 
first  explorers,  who  were  not  at  all  prepared  to  find  in  the 
heart  of  Mexico  a  specimen  of  Gothic  art. 

The  whole  of  the  outside  of  the  hill  is  covered  with  a 
revetment  of  masonry,  forming  five  successive  terraces,  sev- 
enty feet  high,  upheld  by  walls  crowned  with  parapets.  Du- 
paix  relates  that  the  summit  was  reached  by  a  path  eight 

1  Alzate  y  Ramirez  visited  Xochicalco  in  1777,  and,  in  1791,  published  a 
very  inexact  account  of  his  discoveries,  under  the  title  of  "  Descripcion  de  las 
Antiguedades  de  Xochicalco."  Dupaix  and  Castaneda  visited  the  ruins  in 
1831,  and  the  Revista  Mexicana  (vol.  I.,  p.  539)  gives  the  result  of  a  more 
recent  exploration,  made  at  the  cost  of  the  Mexican  Government.  Lastly, 
among  other  explorers,  we  name  :  Humboldt,  "  Vues  des  Cordilleres."  vol.  I., 
p.  98.  Tylor  :  "  Anahuac,"  p.  189.  Nehel  :  "Viaje  pittoresco  y  arqueo- 
logico  sobre  la  rep.  Mejicana." 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 


353 


feet  wide.  The  platform  measures  three  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  feet  by  two  hundred  and  eighty-five.  A  tem- 
ple (fig.  141)  measuring  sixty-five  feet  from  east  to  west, 
and  fifty-eight  from  north  to  south,  rose  from  this  platform, 
in  honor  of  an  unknown  god ;  the  building,  which  was  of 
rectangular  form,  was  constructed  of  blocks  of  porphyritic 
granite,1  laid  without  mortar,  and  with  such  art  that  the 
joints  are  scarcely  visible.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the 


FIG.  141. — Ruins  of  the  temple  of  Xochicalco,  Mexico. 

labor  required  to  take  these  blocks  from  a  distant  quarry 
and  place  them  at  the  height  they  occupy. 

In  1755  there  were  five  stories,  one  behind  the  other,  to 
the  temple  ;  it  was  crowned  by  a  stone  which  could  be  used  as 
a  seat,  and  which  was  covered,  as  was  the  rest  of  the  building, 
with  an  ornamentation  which  must  have  been  as  difficult  to 

'"Porfirdo  granitico,"  Rei'ista  Mex.,  vol.  I.,  p.  548.  "  Basalto  porfirico," 
Nebel.  "  Basalt,"  Lowenstern,  Mex.,  p.  209.  "  La  calidad  de  piedra  de  esta 
magnifica  arquitectura  est  de  piedra  vitrificabile,"  Alzate,  /.  c.,  p.  8. 


354 


PRE-HISTOK1C  AMERICA. 


execute  as  it  is  to  describe.  An  unfortunately  very  inexact 
model  on  reduced  scale  of  this  monument  figured  in  the  in- 
ternational exhibition  of  1867.  It  was  reproduced  in  the 
Illustrated  London  News,  of  June  i,  1867.  It  is  fair  to  add 
that  the  destruction  of  Xochicalco  is  not  to  be  imputed  to 
the  Spaniards ;  the  author  of  this  act  of  vandalism  was  a 
neighboring  land-holder,  who  wanted  to  use  the  stone  for 
building  a  factory. 

The  long  wars  which  desolated  Anahuac,  and  which  were 
in  truth,  the  normal  state  of  the  country,  had  led  to  the 
erection  of  vast  defensive  works,  and  traces  of  these  fortifi- 
cations have  been  made  out  at  Huatusco,  in  the  province  of 
Vera  Cruz,  whence  they  stretched  for  a  very  great  distance 
northward.  Centla  appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  chief  for- 


FiG.  142. — Pyramid  at  Centla. 

tified  places;  ruins  cover  the  plain  ;  but  they  are  gradually  dis- 
appearing, destroyed  by  the  inhabitants.  A  neighboring  for- 
est hides  several  pyramids,  which,  thanks  to  its  protection, 
have  remained  standing.1  We  reproduce  one  of  them,  which 
may  serve  as  a  type  (fig.  142).  The  walls  are  of  dressed 
stone,  cemented  with  lime  mortar ;  but  lime  was  doubtless 
costly,  and  all  the  inside  of  the  walls  is  of  rubble,  laid  in 
clay.  Niches  are  prepared  in  various  places  to  receive  stat- 
ues, or  symbols  of  the  protective  deities. 

These  pyramids  are  certainly  the  most  striking  examples 
of  ancient  American  architecture.  It  is  from  truncated  pyra- 
mids that  the  teocallis  or  palaces  rise  at  Palenque  as  at 
Copan,  in  Yucatan  and  Honduras  as  in  Anahuac  ;  the  trav- 

'Sartorius,  "  Soc.  Mex.  Geog.  Boletin,  2  a  epoca,"  vol.  I.,  p.  821;  vol.  II., 
p.  148. 


THE   RUINS  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA,  355 

eller  meets  with  them  as  far  as  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec, 
where  two  of  them  near  the  town  of  Tehuantepec  are  es- 
pecially noticeable  ;  the  larger  measures  one  hundred  and 
twenty  feet  by  fifty-five  at  the  base,  and  sixty-six  by  thirty 
at  the  platform  crowning  it ;  a  staircase  no  less  than  thirty 
feet  wide  leads  to  this  platform. 

Local  differences  may  be  observed,  the  cause  of  which  is 
most  often  the  difference  of  the  materials  at  the  disposal  of 
the  builders  ;  but  everywhere  the  primitive  type  is  retained, 
a  development  connecting  itself  with  the  mounds,  which  oc- 
cur from  the  borders  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  into 
Florida,  and  thence  into  more  southern  regions,  where  they 
remain  last  witnesses  of  the  migrations  of  these  races. 

Such  are  the  chief  ruins  that  recall  the  Nahuas.  The 
carelessness,  the  fanaticism,  and  the  avarice  of  the  conquerors 
have  rapidly  destroyed  monuments  the  magnificence  of 
which  is  alleged  to  have  dazzled  the  Spaniards.  These 
monuments  may  be  judged  by  our  description  of  a  few  of 
them,  but  it  is  probable  that  the  exuberance  of  Spanish  ad- 
jectives and  the  natural  tendency  of  travellers  to  exaggerate 
the  features  of  their  discoveries  are  responsible  for  much 
that  has  passed  into  history. 

Tula,1  the  former  capital  of  the  Toltecs,  is  now  represented 
by  a  poor  and  miserable  village,  thirty  miles  to  the  north- 
west of  Mexico.  Of  its  past  grandeur  it  has  preserved  noth- 
ing but  its  name.  "  Five  centuries  before  the  conquest," 
says  Sahagun, a  "  this  great  and  celebrated  town  shared  the 
adverse  fortunes  of  Troy."  The  ruins  that  existed  have  in 
their  turn  disappeared,  and  excavations  executed  in  1873 
yielded  nothing  but  a  monstrous  idol  and  two  basalt  columns. 
One  of  these  (fig.  143),  covered  with  ornaments  finely  exe- 

1  There  are  several  places  of  the  name  of  Tula,  Tulha,  and  Tulau  ;  hence  a 
serious  difficulty.  ("  Popol.-Vuh,  pp.  LXXXV.  and  CCLIV.)  Tula  was,  it 
is  said,  destroyed  by  the  Chichimecs  in  1064,  and  the  inhabitants  took  refuge  at 
Cholulan,  the  city  of  exiles.  The  latter  town  in  its  turn  rose  to  importance 
rapidly,  for  the  Spaniards,  we  are  told,  gave  it  the  name  of  Rome  on  account  of 
the  splendor  of  its  monuments. 

*  "  Hist,  de  la  cosas  de  Nueva  Espana,"  prol.  al.  lib.  VIII. 


356 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


cuted,  is  interesting,  as  it  shows  us  the  mode  of  jointing  with 
tenon  and  mortice  employed  by  these  people,  who  were  al- 
ready well  advanced  in  their  knowledge  of  technical  pro- 
cesses.1 Other  ruins  of  little  importance  are  met  with  in  the 
neighborhood  ;  but  we  learn  nothing  about  the  ancient  Tula. 
Such  was  the  state  of  things  when  recent  discoveries  re- 
vealed facts  which,  should  they  be  confirmed,  will  prove  of 
capital  importance  to  the  ancie-nt  history  of  America. 

Charnay,  in  the  execution  of  a  mission  entrusted  to  him 
by  the  French  Government,  went  to  Zula  and 
superintended  the  excavation  of  some  tumuli, 
mountains  of  rubbish  probably,  which  had  cov- 
ered for  many  centuries  the  relics  of  the  ancient 
Toltecs.  One  dwelling  thus  exhumed  consisted 
of  twenty-four  rooms,  two  cisterns,  twelve  cor- 
ridors, and  fifteen  little  staircases  "  of  extraordi- 
nary architecture  and  thrilling  interest,"  enthu- 
siastically exclaims  the  fortunate  explorer.2 

"  This  is  not  all,"  he  adds  ;  "  in  the  midst  of 
fragments  of  pottery  of  all  kinds,  from  the 
coarsest  used  in  building,  such  as  bricks,  tiles, 
water-pipes,  to  the  most  delicate  for  domestic 
use,  I  have  picked  up  enamels,  fragments  of 
crockery  and  porcelain,  and  more  extraordinary 
still,  the  neck  of  a  glass  bottle  iridescent  like 
ancient  Roman  glass."  FIG.  143. — Col- 

A  A-\-       j  'u    •      i          ^•L.       -L.  e  umn  from  Tula. 

Amongst  the  debris  lay  the  bones  of  some 
gigantic    ruminants   (perhaps  bisons  ?),    the  tibia    of  which 
were  about  one  foot  three  inches  long  by  four  inches  thick, 

1  "  Soc.  Mex.  Geog.  Boletin,"  3d  epoca,  vol.  I.,  p.  185.  "The  Toltecs 
used  indifferently  stones  mixed  in  mud  or  in  mortar  for  the  interior  of  the  walls, 
and  cement  and  lime  for  coating  them.  They  employed  burnt  brick  and  hewn 
stone  for  the  inside  coating,  brick  and  stone  for  the  stairs,  and  wood  for  the 
roofs.  They  were  acquainted  with  the  pilaster,  which  we  have  found  in  their 
houses  ;  with  the  engaged  column,  caryatides,  and  the  free  column,  and  we 
can  think  of  few  architectural  devices  that  they  did  not  know  and  use." 
Charnay,  "  Bull.  Soc.  Geog.,"  Nov.,  1881. 

*  Letter  to  the  Trait  d' Union  of  the  28th  of  August,  1880.  "Archives  des 
Missions  scientifiques,"  vol.  VII. 


THE  RUIN'S  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  357 

the  femur  at  the  upper  end  about  six  inches  by  four  inches. 

Admitting  that  there  is  no  mistake,  these  facts  are  abso- 
lutely new,  for  previously  it  was  considered  that  the  early 
Americans  did  not  know  how  to  make  either  glass  or  porce- 
lain, and  that  before  the  arrival  of  the  Conquistadors  none 
of  our  domestic  animals  were  known  in  America,  but  that 
the  oxen,  horses,  and  sheep  living  there  at  the  present  day 
are  all  descended  from  ancestors  imported  from  Europe. 

The  excavations  have  also  yielded  some  little  chariots 
that  Charnay  thinks  were  the  toys  of  children.  Now,  sup- 
posing these  toys  to  have  been  a  reproduction  in  miniature 
of  objects  used  by  men,  we  must  conclude  that  the  Toltecs 
employed  carriages,  and  that  their  use  was  not  only  given 
up,  but  absolutely  unknown  on  the  arrival  of  Cortes.1 

These  discoveries,  we  can  but  repeat,  greatly  modify  the 
conclusions  hitherto  accepted.  But  are  these  really  original 
productions  ?  May  they  not  have  been  imported  ?  This  is 
after  all  doubtful,  and  new  proofs  are  needed  to  establish 
certainly  that  the  objects  discovered  really  date  from  the 
pre-Columbian  period  before  we  can  admit  that  in  the  elev- 
enth century  the  Toltecs  possessed  domestic  animals,  that 
they  knew  how  to  make  and  fashion  porcelain,  glass,  perhaps 
even  iron,  for  Charnay  also  collected  in  his  excavations  sev- 
eral iron  implements.  He  himself  expresses  an  idea  that 
the  material  of  which  they  were  made  dates  from  the  Span- 
ish period.  He  does  not  explain  why  he  makes  an  excep- 
tion on  this  point  with  regard  to  the  glass  and  porcelain 
objects. 

It  is  strong  evidence  against  their  prehistoric  character 
that  all  these  elements  of  an  advanced  civilization  must 
have  disappeared  without  leaving  any  trace  even  in  the 
memory  of  man.  It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  the  differ- 
ent objects  brought  to  light  by  Charnay  are  later  than  the 
Spanish  conquest,  and  it  will  be  wise  to  reserve  our  opinion 
with  regard  to  them  until  more  complete  information  can 
be  obtained. 


1  Revue  des  Questions  scientifiques,  Oct. ,  1 88 1 ,  p.  640. 


.  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

No  monument  of  Mexico  has  remained  standing ;  there  is 
nothing  to  recall  the  power  of  the  Aztecs ;  pyramids,  pal- 
aces, teocallis,  all  have  disappeared ;  the  ruins  themselves 
are  buried  beneath  the  accumulated  dust  of  three  centuries; 
and  we  are  ignorant  of  the  very  position  of  the  edifices  over 
the  grandeur  of  which  Spanish  writers  expatiate.1  To  get 
some  idea  of  what  were  the  buildings  of  the  Aztecs,  we 
must  reproduce  the  description  of  the  great  temple  erected 
by  Ahiutzotl  in  honor  of  the  god  Huitzilopochtli. 

This  temple  occupied  the  centre  of  the  town  ;  it  was  situ- 
ated in  the  middle  of  an  enclosure  surrounded  with  walls 
which  extended  for  a  length  of  4,800  feet.  These 
were  built  in  rubble-stone  laid  in  mortar,  coated  with 
plaster,  polished  on  both  faces,  surrounded  by  turrets  and 
machicolations  of  spiral  form,  and  ornamented  with  numer- 
ous sculptures,  chiefly  representing  serpents.  Hence  the 
name  by  which  they  were  known,  Coetpantli,  or  walls 
of  serpents.2  On  each  side  was  a  building,  the  lowest  story 
of  which  served  as  a  portal  to  the  interior  of  the  court. 

On  entering  one  found  one's  self  opposite  the  great  temple, 
which  formed  a  regular  parallelogram  of  three  hundred  and 
seventy-five  feet  by  three  hundred,  and  which  like  the  other 
teocallis  rose  in  five  terraces,  each  built  smaller  than 
the  other  below  it.  The  walls  were  of  rubble,  mixed  with 
clay  and  beaten  earth,  covered  with  large  slabs  of  stone 
carefully  cemented  and  encased  by  a  thick  coating  of  gyp- 
sum. The  upper  platform,  which  was  reached  by  a  flight  of 
three  hundred  and  forty  steps,  passed  round  each  of  the  ter- 
races in  succession,  and  was  surmounted  by  two  towers 

1  Bernal  Diaz  :  "  Hist,  verdadera  de  la  Conquista  de  la  Nueva  Espafia," 
fol.  70.  ;  "  Relatione  fatta  per  un  gentil'huomo  del  signer  F.  Cortese." 
Ramusio  :  "Navigation!  et  Viaggi,"  vol.  III.,  fols.  307,  309.  Torquemada  : 
"  Mon.  Ind.,"  vol.  II.,  p.  197.  Cortes:  "  Cartas  y  Relaciones,"  p.  106. 
Sahagun  :  "Hist.  Gen.,"  vol.  I.,  p.  197.  Gomara  :  "  Hist,  de  Mex.,"  fol. 
nS.  Las  Casas:  "Hist.  Apol.,"  chs.  XLIX.,  LI.,  CXXIV.  Tezozomoc  : 
"Hist.  Mex.,"  vol.  I.,  p.  151.  Amongst  modern  writers  may  be  consulted 
Prescott's  "  Hist,  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico  "  and  Tylor's  "  Anahuac." 

'  "  Era  labrada  de  piedras  grandes  a  manera  de  culebras  asidas  las  unas  a  las 
otras."  Acosta  :  "  Hist,  de  las  Yndias,"  p.  333. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  359 

of  three  stories  each,  their  total  height  being  fifty-six  feet. 
The  two  upper  stories  were  of  exceptional  construction,  be- 
ing in  wood,  and  could  only  be  reached  by  means  of  ladders. 
The  roof  was  also  of  wood,  and  consisted  of  a  cupola 
upheld  by  columns  painted  alternately  black  and  red. 

The  sancturies  of  the  gods  were  in  the  lower  story  of  the 
teocalli ;  on  the  right  was  that  of  Huitzilopochtli,  and 
on  the  left  that  of  his  half  brother  Tezcatlipoca.  The  statue 
of  the  former  was  exhumed  almost  intact  in  1790;  the 
Indians  hastened  to  cover  it  with  flowers.  This  is  a  strange 
fact,  especially  when  we  contrast  it  with  the  indifference  to 
the  past  noticed  among  the  present  Indians  of  North 
America.  The  gigantic  statues  of  Huitzilopochtli  and 
Tezcatlipoca  were  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  the  faithful  by 
magnificent  draperies,  and  at  their  feet  was  set  up  the 
sacrificial  stone,  said  by  Clavigero  to  have  been  of  green 
jasper,  on  which  so  many  unfortunate  victims  perished.  Las 
Casas  is  enthusiastic  even  to  exaggeration  over  the  internal 
richness  of  the  temple.  Bernal  Diaz,  who  is  probably  more 
veracious,  says  that  the  walls  and  the  floors  were  streaming 
with  human  blood,  and  exhaled  an  odor  so  fetid  that  the  visit- 
ors were  quickly  put  to  flight.1  In  all  the  temples  and  before 
all  the  idols  burned  the  sacred  fire,  which  was  always  scrupu- 
lously kept  up,  for  its  extinction  threatened  the  country  with 
great  danger.  From  the  top  of  the  principal  teocalli  could 
be  counted  six  hundred  braziers,  which  were  burning  day 
and  night. 

Forty  smaller  temples,  mostly  crowning  pyramids,  rose 
from  different  points  of  the  sacred  enclosure,  like  satellites 
of  the  greater  gods  to  whom  the  chief  temple  was  con- 
secrated. That  of  Tlatoc  was  reached  by  a  flight  of  fifty 
steps  * ;  that  of  Quetzacoatl  was  circular  and  crowned  by  a 
dome  ;  the  door  was  low,  and  represented  the  mouth  of  a 
serpent ;  the  worshippers  who  came  to  adore  their  god  had 
to  pass  through  this  half-open  mouth  which  seemed  ready 

1  "  Hist,  de  la  Conq.,"  fol.  7. 

1  Oviedo  :  "  Hist.  Gen.  y  Nat.  de  las  Indias,"  vol.  III.,  p.  302. 


360  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA, 

to  devour  them.1  The  Ilhuicatlican  was  dedicated  to  the 
planet  Venus,  and  a  captive  had  to  be  sacrificed  at  the  very 
moment  of  the  appearance  of  that  planet  above  the  horizon. 
In  accordance  with  a  rather  original  idea  an  immense  cage 
was  placed  in  one  of  the  teocallis  to  receive  the  statues  of 
foreign  gods,  so  that  they  might  not  be  able  to  use  their 
liberty  for  succoring  their  worshippers.2 

The  Quauhxicalco  was  an  immense  ossuary  where  the 
bones  of  victims  were  accumulated.  The  skulls  were  set  aside 
and  put  in  the  Tzempantli  outside  the  enclosure  near  the  west- 
ern gate.  This  Tzempantli  was  an  immense  oblong  pyramid 
formed  by  human  heads  enshrined  in  the  masonry.  Two 
columns  dominated  the  platform  of  the  pyramid,  and  these 
columns  were  entirely  composed  of  heads  taking  the  place 
of  stones.3  When  the  victim  was  a  chief  the  head  was  set 
up  in  its  natural  condition,  and  nothing  could  exceed  the 
horror  and  disgust  inspired  by  these  grinning  dead  faces. 
The  Spaniards  alleged  that  there  were  as  many  as  one 
hundred  and  thirty-six  thousand  of  these  heads  thus 
exposed. 

The  court  was  the  largest  portion  of  the  enclosure.  It 
was  here  that  an  immense  crowd  collected  to  assist  at  the 
sacrifice  and  at  the  combats  of  the  gladiators.  Here,  too, 
were  the  lodgings  of  thousands  of  priests,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, whose  duty  it  was  to  take  care  of  the  temples  and  the 
sacred  precincts;  according  to  Bernal  Diaz,  however  great 
the  number  of  visitors,  the  enclosure  was  kept  clean  with 
such  care  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  discover  in  it  so 
much  as  a  single  straw. 

Tezcuco  has  disappeared  like  its  ancient  and  eager  rival ; 
its  stones,  bas-reliefs,  and  sculptures  have  been  used  to  build 
the  houses  of  the  modern  town,  and  a  few  heaps  of  now 
shapeless  adobes  and  rubbish  of  all  kinds  here  and  there  are 
the  sole  mementoes  at  the  present  day  of  the  past  splendor 

1Torquemada  :    "  Mon.  Ind.,"  vol.  II.,  p.  145. 
8  Torquemada,  quoted  above,  vol.  II.,  p.  147. 

'Warden:  "  Recherches  sur  les  Ant.  de  1'Am.  du  Nord.,  Ant.  Mex.,"  vol.  II., 
p.  66. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  361 

of  a  town  which  contained  one  hundred  and  forty  thousand 
houses,  and  where  two  hundred  thousand  craftsmen  worked 
for  years  at  the  erection  of  the  dwelling  of  the  chief.1  Ty- 
lor,  in  a  recent  visit,  made  out  the  foundations  of  two  large 
Teocallis  and  several  tumuli,  which  marked  ancient  graves. 
In  consequence  of  one  of  these  geological  phenomena  which 
it  is  difficult  to  explain  satisfactorily,  but  which  are  met  with 
in  every  part  of  the  globe,  the  lake  which  once  washed  the 
capital  of  the  Tezcucans  is  now  several  miles  from  the  mod- 
ern town. 

In  spite  of  our  wish  to  abridge  a  necessarily  very  dry  list 
of  names,  it  is  impossible  to  omit  noticing  the  ruins  of 
Quemada,  in  the  south  of  Zacatecas,  on  the  road  between 
the  town  of  that  name  and  Villanueva,  not  only  on  account 
of  the  mass  of  ruins  which  cover  a  considerable  area  and 
bear  witness  to  the  ancient  importance  of  the  town,  but  also 
because  of  the  differences  between  its  buildings  and  any  of 
those  of  which  we  have  hitherto  spoken. 

The  origin  of  Quemada  is  unknown,  but  it  has  been  stated, 
without  any  serious  proof,  that  the  Aztecs  halted  there  in 
their  migrations  southward,  and  that  it  is  to  them  that  the 
town,  the  true  name  of  which  is  unknown,  owes  its  founda- 
tion.* 

The  Cerro  de  los  Edificios  is  an  irregular  hill,  half  a  mile 
long  and  from  six  hundred  to  nine  hundred  feet  wide,  which 
suddenly  rises  to  the  height  of  about  sixteen  hundred  feet, 
near  its  summit.  This  was  a  fortress,  a  regular  intrenched 
camp,  surrounded  with  walls  no  less  than  twelve  feet  thick, 
with  several  tiers  of  bastions  connected  by  curtains.  A  large 

1  Torquemada :  "  Mon.  Ind.,"  vol.  I.,  p,  304.  The  figures  he  gives  are  prob- 
ably greatly  exaggerated.  Peter  Martyr  only  speaks  of  twenty  thousand 
houses,  and  Cabajal  Espinosa  of  thirty  thousand,  "  Hist,  de  Mexico,"  Mexico, 
1862,  vol.  I.,  p.  87. 

*  Lyon  :  "  Journal  of  a  tour  in  the  Republic  of  Mexico,"  London,  1828,  vol. 
I.,  p.  225.  Narcos  de  Esparza:  "  Informe  presentado  al  Gobierno,"  Zacate- 
cas, 1830.  J.  Burkart  :  "  Aufenthal  und  Reisen  in  Mexico,"  Stuttgart,  1836. 
Nebel :  "  Viagesobre  la  Republica  Mejicana,"  Paris,  1839.  "  Soc.  Mex.  Geog. 
Bol.,"  2a.  epoca,  vol.  III.,  p.  278.  Fegueux  :  "  Les  Ruines  de  la  Quemada," 
Rev.  d'  Ethn.,  vol.,  I,  p.  119. 


362  PREHISTORIC  AMERICA. 

pyramid  about   thirty-two  feet  high,  forms  a  veritable  re- 
doubt. 

It  is  at  Los  Edificios,  as  the  name  implies,  that  the  most 
important  ruins  are  found.  It  is  impossible  to  describe 
them,  for  they  are  now,  as  we  have  said,  nothing  but  masses 
of  rubbish ;  and  long  and  costly  excavations  alone  could 
enable  us  to  judge  of  the  form  and  purpose  of  the  various 
buildings.  Several  columns  have  remained  standing,  and 
the  position  of  some  of  them  indicate  that  they  had  formed 
part  of  porticos.  This  is  an  exceptional  fact  in  ancient 
American  architecture.  These  columns  are  in  gray  por- 
phyry, and  remind  us  of  the  massive  ones  of  Egyptian  tem- 
ples. One  of  these  columns  is  no  less  than  nineteen  feet  in 
circumference,  and  eighteen  feet  high.  Fegueux  speaks  of 
eleven  columns  of  about  three  feet  in  diameter  and  nine 
in  height. 

Besides  the  pyramid  we  have  mentioned,  there  are  several 
others  belonging  to  this  well-known  type.  The  mortar 
which  binds  the  stones  together  is,  as  in  the  buildings  of  the 
Mound  Builders,  a  mixture  of  clay  and  straw.  So  far  none 
of  the  sculptures,  hieroglyphics,  or  pictographs,  such  as  are 
so  constantly  met  with  in  other  ancient  towns,  have  been 
found.  Fegueux,  however,  speaks  of  a  stone  on  which  five 
serpents  were  engraved,  situated  at  the  foot  of  the  escarp- 
ment of  Los  Edificios. 

The  plain  surrounding  the  Cerro  is  covered  with  ruins, 
amongst  which  neither  pottery,  flint  weapons,  nor  imple- 
ments are  found.  We  are  met  with  the  strange  problem  of 
a  town,  every  thing  about  which  proves  its  importance,  yet 
where  nothing  of  this  sort  reveals  the  presence  of  man. 

The  province  of  Oajaca,  situated  on  the  banks  of  the 
Pacific  and  crossed  by  the  Cordillera,  includes  a  mountain- 
ous and  sterile  region  overlooking  the  tierras  calientes  with 
their  rich  tropical  vegetation ;  here  dwelt  the  Zapotecs,1  who 

1  Maler  writes  Tzapoteques  {Nature,  2$th  Dec.,  1880).  Perhaps  he  is 
right,  for  the  name  seems  to  be  derived  from  Tzapotl,  "  a  well-known  fruit," 
says  Molina,  "Vocabularis  en  lengua  Castellana  y  Mexicana."  They  called 
themselves  Didsasa, 


THE   RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  363 

resembled  the  Mayas  in  their  language,1  and  the  Nahuas  in 
their  religious  rites  and  in  the  style  of  their  architecture ; 
springing  very  probably  from  intermarriages  between  these 
two  races.  The  men  were  strong  and  well  built,  brave  and 
often  ferocious" ;  the  expression  of  their  faces  was  disagree- 
able ;  whilst  the  women,  on  the  contrary,  are  said  to  have 
been  pretty,  with  finely  cut  and  delicate  features. 

Their  religious  rites,  as  we  have  just  said,  resembled  those 
of  the  Aztecs.  Among  their  numerous  divinities,  patrons  of 
all  the  virtues  and  also  of  all  the  vices,  they  recognized  one 
principal  God,  Piycxoo  ;  the  uncreated  being,  Pitao-Cozaana^ 
the  Creator.  What  is  more  certain  is  that,  like  the  Aztecs, 
they  did  honor  to  their  gods  by  human  sacrifices.  Men 
were  offered  up  on  the  altars  of  the  gods,  women  on  those 
of  the  goddesses.  On  the  day  dedicated  to  Teteionan,8  a 
woman,  who  was  seated  on  the  shoulders  of  another  woman, 
had  her  head  cut  off ;  and  her  bearer  had  to  appear  before 
the  goddess  bathed  in  the  blood  which  flowed.  At  the  cele- 
bration of  a  holiday  in  honor  of  the  arrival  of  the  gods,  the 
victims  were  burned,  and  on  other  occasions  children  were 
drowned  or  walled  up  in  caves,  there  to  die  slowly  of  the 
cruel  tortures  of  hunger  and  fear.4 

The  Zapotecs  were  subject  to  a  chief,  and  the  office  was 
hereditary.  Contemporary  with  this  chief  lived  a  chief 
priest,  the  Weyctao,  who  resided  at  Yopaa,  and  took  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  government  of  the  country.  His  feet 
were  never  allowed  to  touch  the  ground  ;  he  was  carried  on 
the  shoulders  of  his  attendants  ;  and  when  he  appeared,  all, 
even  the  chiefs  themselves,  had  to  prostrate  themselves  be- 
fore him,  and  none  dared  to  raise  their  eyes  in  his  presence. 

1  Bancroft  (vol.  III.,  p.  754)  gives  very  fairly  complete  details  on  this  Ian- 
guage,  and  mentions  his  authorities. 

*  "  Ferozes  y  valientes,"  says  Burgoa,  "  Geog.  Descr.,"  vol.  I.,  p.  2,  fol. 
196,  vol.  II.,  fol.  362.  Herrera:  "  Hist.  Gen.,"  vol.  III.,  dec.  III.,  book  III., 
CXIV. 

1  A  goddess  adored  by  the  various  people  of  the  Nahuatl  race,  also  known 
under  the  names  of  Tozi,  Toccy  and  Tocitzin. 

4  Clavigero,  "St.  Ant.  del  Messico,"  vol.  II.,  p.  45 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

The  Weyetao  could  not  marry,  and  was  bound  to  continence, 
but  on  a  certain  day  of  the  year  he  had  a  right  to  become 
intoxicated,  and  when  he  was  in  that  state,  a  young  and 
beautiful  virgin  was  brought  to  him  ;  and  it  was  the  eldest 
of  the  children  born  of  this  union  of  a  single  day  who  in- 
herited the  sacerdotal  dignity.1 

The  splendor  of  the  edifices  erected  by  the  Zapotecs  was 
by  no  means  inferior  to  that  of  the  other  people  of  Central 
America,  and  Mitla,2  their  capital  and  sacred  town,  was  in 
every  respect  worthy  of  comparison  with  Palenque  or  Ux- 
mal,  Chichen-Itza  or  Tenotchitlan.  It  is  said  to  have  been 
founded  by  the  disciples  of  Quetzacoatl,  and  a  legend  tells 
that  one  day  an  old  man  of  venerable  aspect  suddenly  came 
out  of  Lake  Huixa,  accompanied  by  a  young  girl  of  incom- 
parable beauty.  This  old  man  was  clothed  in  a  dress  and 
mantle  of  brilliant  blue,  and  wore  a  mitre  on  his  head.  He 
pointed  out  an  eminence,  on  -which  a  temple  was  built  un- 
der his  orders  ;  he  gave  to  the  country  wise  and  just  laws, 
and  disappeared  as  mysteriously  as  he  had  arrived.3  But  a 
town  had  already  risen  near  the  temple,  and  for  centuries 
this  town  continued  to  prosper,  thanks  to  the  celestial  pro- 
tection. There  are  vast  gaps  in  its  history,  and  a  few  very 
doubtful  facts  are  just  beginning  to  accumulate.  We  know 
that  the  Zapotecs  were  engaged  in  long  struggles  with  the 
Aztecs,  and  that,  at  the  end  of  the  I5th  century,  about 
1494,  Mitla  was  taken  and  given  over  to  pillage,  the  priests 
who  had  conducted  the  defence  being  taken  to  Mexico,  and 
offered  up  on  the  altars  of  Huitzilopochtli. 

The  town  of  Mitla  rises  in  the  centre  of  a  narrow  and 
dusty  valley,  framed  in  dreary  and  rugged  mountains.  Its 
ruins  appear  suddenly  before  the  traveller,  and  their  mag- 

1  Burgoa,  loc.  cit.  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  :  "  Hist,  des  Nat.  Civ.,"  vol. 
III.,  p.  29. 

1  The  Zapotec  name  was  Lioba  or  Yobba,  the  town  of  tombs  ;  the  name  of 
Mitla  seems  to  have  been  given  by  the  Aztecs.  It  may  come  from  Mictlan, 
the  abode  of  souls  after  death  ;  or  from  Mill,  one  of  the  Nahua  gods. 

*  Torquemada,  vol.  I.,  p.  255.  Herrera,  dec.  III.,  book  II.,  ch.  XI. 
Veytia,  vol.  I.,  p.  164.  Burgoa,  fol.  297,  343. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA. 


365 


nificence  contrasts  strangely  with  the  arid  and  desert  coun- 
try surrounding  them.  "  The  monuments  of  the  golden  age 
of  Greece  and  of  Rome,"  says  the  eminent  archeologist, 
Viollet-le-Duc,  "  alone  equal  the  beauty  of  the  masonry  of 
this  great  building.  The  facings,  dressed  with  perfect  regu- 
larity, the  well-cut  joints,  the  faultless  bends,  and  the  edges 
of  unequalled  sharpness,  bear  witness  to  knowledge  and  long 
experience  on  the  part  of  the  builders." 


FIG.   144. — Plan  of  the  great  temple  of  Mitla. 

The  most  remarkable  building  of  Mitla  is  the  palace, 
lauded  in  such  enthusiastic  terms ;  it  consists  of  an  interior 
quadrangle  measuring  130  by  120  feet,  surrounded  on  three 
sides'  by  rounded  mounds,  from  which  rise  important 
buildings  (fig.  144).  The  northern  building  (A)  is  well 
preserved  ;  of  that  on  the  east  (C)  nothing  remains  but  a 
few  crumbled  walls,  in  the  midst  of  which  rise  a  portico  and 

1  On  the  plan  given  by  Dupaix  he  figures  a  fourth  building.  Viollet-le-Duc 
reproduces  it  (p.  75).  The  very  foundations  have  now  completely  disappeared. 


366  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA, 

two  columns  (e.,  c.}.  The  western  building  (D)  has  fared 
still  worse  ;  its  foundations  alone  remain.  At  Palenque  the 
walls  were  entirely  constructed  of  dressed  stones;  in  Yuca- 
tan, dressings  of  large  stones  mask  a  heart  of  rubble-stone 
and  mortar ;  it  is  this  latter  mode  which  was  employed  at 
Mitla ;  but  the  mortar  is  replaced  by  clay,  and  the  exterior 
face  is  formed  in  masonry  consisting  of  perfectly  hewn 
stones,  of  the  size  of  a  small  brick,  producing  many  varied 
combinations  by  their  joint  patterns  and  zig-zags. 

The  lateral  buildings  measure  96  feet  by  17  ;  that  on  the 
north  130  by  36.  Several  steps  (G.)  lead  up  to  three  doors 
(k.*)  and  give  access  to  them.  The  lintels  are  no  longer  in 
wood,  but  in  large  stones,  such  as  those  in  the  monuments 
of  Greece  or  Rome. 

The  chief  room  (fig.  145)  was  ornamented  by  six  columns, 
without  plinth  and  without  capital.  These  columns  were 
probably  intended  to  uphold  the  roof,  and  thus  to  lessen  the 
bearing  of  the  beams.1  Humboldt,  who  visited  these  ruins 
in  1802,  speaks  of  large  beams;  Dupaix  says  they  were  of 
the  wood  of  a  coniferous  tree  ;  such  was  also  the  opinion  of 
Viollet-le-Duc  ;  and  Maler  reports  that  at  the  time  of  his 
visit  all  the  beams  had  disappeared.  Burgoa,  on  the  con- 
trary, speaks  of  having  seen  in  their  places  large  slabs  more 
than  two  feet  thick,  resting  on  pillars  nine  feet  high,  and  the 
Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg"  confirms  this  fact,  adding  that 
all  round  the  building  ran  a  cornice  ornamented  with  gro- 
tesque sculptures,  the  whole  of  which  formed  a  kind  of 
diadem  crowning  the  building.  We  have  taken  pains  to  re- 
late these  unimportant  details,  to  illustrate  the  impossibility 
of  coming  to  any  conclusions  in  the  presence  of  facts  so 
very  obscure  in  themselves  and  rendered  yet  more  confusing 
by  the  discrepancy  of  different  explorers. 

The  walls  and  the  pavement  had  been  covered  with  three 

1  Similar  examples  might  be  mentioned  in  certain  pueblos,  undoubtedly  of 
more  recent  construction  than  the  palace  of  Mitla,  at  Tuloom,  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  Yucatan. 

*  "  Hist,  des  Nat.  Civ.,"  vol.  III.,  p.  26. 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

layers  of  very  durable  stucco,  painted  red,  of  a  tone  not  un- 
like that  decorating  the  walls  of  Pompeii. 

From  the  room  of  the  columns  a  very  dark  lobby  led  into 
a  second  court  (I.),  surrounded  by  rooms  (£.,  £.),  which,  in  spite 
of  their  small  dimensions,  must  have  been  the  chief  ones  of 
the  palace.  The  richness  of  their  ornamentation  was  remark- 
able ;  the  walls  were  covered  with  a  regular  mosaic  in  little 
stones,  forming  symmetrical  designs,  Greek  frets,  or  ara- 
besques. It  is  difficult  to  decide  whether  these  mosaics,  of 
very  skilful  execution,  bear  witness  to  an  art  more  advanced 
than  that  of  the  sculptures  at  Uxmal,  it  is  yet  more  difficult 
to  assign  a  date  to  the  building  of  either.  It  is  however, 
pretty  generally  agreed  that  the  monuments  of  Uxmal  are 
more  ancient  than  those  of  Mitla. 

The  three  other  palaces,  the  ruins  of  which  are  standing, 
must  be  briefly  mentioned.  They  resemble,  though  on  a 
smaller  scale,  the  one  already  noticed.  Probably  hieratic  in- 
fluence consecrated  a  type  from  which  none  were  allowed  to 
depart ;  everywhere  we  meet  with  the  mosaics  in  stone, 
which  are  characteristic  of  the  architecture  of  Mitla.  We 
will  only  mention  a  subterranean  gallery  in  the  form  of  a 
cross,  under  one  of  these  palaces.  Crypts  are  in  fact  rare  in 
Central  America. 

The  Zapotecs  had  carried  their  conquests  as  far  as  the 
isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  and  it  is  probably  to  them  that  are 
due  the  pyramids  still  standing  in  several  places,  such  as  the 
fortifications  of  Cerro  de  Guiengola,1  of  which  we  have  already 
had  occasion  to  speak.  These  fortifications  were  erected 
after  the  taking  of  Mitla,  by  order  of  Cociyoeza ;  they  ena- 
bled the  Zapotecs  to  make  a  victorious  resistance,  the  result 
of  which  was  an  honorable  peace  for  the  vanquished.  A 
sepulchre  hewn  in  the  very  side  of  the  Cerro  has  yielded 
more  than  two  hundred  pieces  of  pottery,  chiefly  vases  or  lit- 
tle figures  of  animals.  The  whole  of  the  inside  of  the 
tomb  was  covered  with  a  thick  coating  of  cement,  and  the 

'Arias  :  "  Antiguedades  Zapotecas,"  Museo  Mex.  Mtlller  :  "  Reisen  in  den 
Vereinigten  Staaten,  Canada,  und  Mexico,"  Leipzig,  1864. 


THE   KUINS   OF   CENTRAL   AMERICA, 


corpses   were    placed    with  the    faces   turned    toward    the 
ground,  a  very  unusual  arrangement. 

The  Cerro  de  Guiengola  is  but  a  few  leagues  from  Te- 


FIG.  146. — Image  of  a  Zapotec 
chief. 


He.  147. — Zapotec  ornament 
found  at  Tehuantepec. 


huantepec,  the  capital  of  the  province,  where  the  recent 
discovery  of  the  sepulchre  of  one  of  the  ancient  chiefs  of 
the  country  is  announced.1 

1 F.  Maler,  Nature,  I4th  June,  1879. 


370  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

In  1875,  in  demolishing  a  house,  the  workmen  found  a 
number  of  costly  jewels  of  gold,  together  with  several 
human  skeletons  which  fell  to  dust  immediately  on  contact 
with  the  air.  This  tomb  was  completely  unknown  at  the 
time  of  the  Spanish  conquest,  or  it  would  certainly  not  have 
escaped  the  rapacity  of  the  Spaniards.  This  last  fact,  taken 
with  the  state  of  the  bones,  justifies  us  in  assigning  great 
antiquity  to  the  sepulchre,  and  adds  to  the  value  of  the  dis- 
covery. Unfortunately  the  jewels  were  sold  for  the  weight 
of  the  gold,  and  nearly  all  were  immediately  melted  down. 
The  only  ones  left  are  those  we  reproduce  (figs.  146  to 
149).  One  of  them  is  supposed  to  be  the  image  of  a  Zapo- 
tec  chief,  placed  near  his  corpse  ;  the  bird  seems  to  have 
been  a  labret  or  pendant  for  the  lip.  A  similar  ornament  is 
fastened  to  the  royal  lip.  Several  little  figures  represented 
turtles ;  they  are  all  made  in  a  single  piece,  hollowed,  with- 
out a  trace  of  soldering,  and  such  as  the  most  skilful  jewel- 
lers of  our  present  day  would  find  it  very  difficult  to  imitate. 

With  the  gold  ornaments  were  also  picked  up  several  cop- 
per objects,  earthenware  vases  of  graceful  form,  a  cup,  the 
handle  of  which  represents  the  paw  of  a  feline  animal,  oth- 
ers ornamented  with  tastefully  executed  paintings,  and 
lastly  some  necklaces  of  round  stones  and  bracelets  of  sea- 
shells.  At  previous  times  several  little  earthenware  figures 
had  been  found,  which  are  now  in  the  National  Museum  of 
Mexico.  These  discoveries,  together  with  the  monuments, 
or  rather  the  ruins  still  existing,  bear  witness  to  the  industry 
of  the  Zapotecs. 

We  are  obliged  to  omit  numerous  ruins,  temples  or  pal- 
aces, mounds,  pyramids  or  fortifications.  Central  America, 
from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  is  literally 
covered  with  them,  and  that  in  the  most  different  regions ; 
from  fertile  plains,  where  men  can  live  in  large  numbers,  to 
arid  mountains,  where  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  maintain  ex- 
istence. It  is  impossible,  however  great  their  interest,  to 
describe  all  these  discoveries  ;  our  sole  aim  is  to  illustrate 
the  riches,  the  luxury,  and  the  culture  of  these  people,  the 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA.  371 

very  name  of  which   is  almost  effaced  from  the  memory  of 
men. 

Under  these  circumstances  there  is  but  one  other  fact  to 
which  it  will  be  useful  to  call  attention.  Santa  Lucia  Co- 
sumhualpa,  in  the  department  of  Escuintla  (Guatemala),  a 
little  town  of  recent  creation,  not  yet  marked  on  any  map, 
rises  at  the  foot  of  the  volcano  del  Fuego.  The  celebrated 


FIG.  148. — Zapotcc  ornament  1  .^..  149. — Zapotec  labret. 

found  at  Tehuantepec. 

German  traveller,  Bastian,  who  crossed  the  country  in  1876, 
has  proved  the  existence  all  around  the  village  of  important 
ruins,  the  greater  number  of  which  are,  however,  still  hidden 
in  the  midst  of  impenetrable  forests.1 

1  Habel  :  "  Investigations  in  Central  and  South  America,"  "Smith.  Cont.," 
vol.  XXII.  Schobel :  "  Un  chap,  de  1'Arch.  Am.  Congres  de  Luxembourg," 
vol.  II. 


372  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Amongst  blocks  of  cyclopean  stone,  and  rubbish  of  all 
kinds,  sculptures  are  seen,  differing  materially  from  and  in- 
finitely superior  to  those  we  have  described. 

In  the  sugar  plantation  of  Don  Manuel  Herrera,  Bastian 
saw  colossal  heads  in  stone,  of  a  strange  and  unknown  type, 
and  several  figures  of  animals,  such  as  tapirs  and  alligators. 
These  gigantic  statues  were  arranged  in  threes,  at  equal  dis- 
tances from  each  other,  as  if  they  had  marked  a  colonnade 
now  destroyed.  At  the  Hacienda  de  los  Taros  lay  three 
other  figures  in  relief,  five  feet  nine  inches  in  height,  by  three 
feet  seven  inches  across,  and  of  bold  execution.  Two  of 
these  figures  wore  earrings,  and  their  head-dresses  resembled 
the  Asiatic  turban. 

Farther  on  are  some  bas-reliefs,  sculptured  in  very  hard 
porphyritic  rocks,  such  as  are  only  found  near  the  volcano  of 
Acatenango,  so  that  the  blocks  must  have  been  brought 
from  a  great  distance.  These  huge  bas-reliefs  represent 
figures  grotesque  alike  in  design  and  execution,  and  mytho- 
logical scenes  perfectly  unlike  those  with  which  we  are  ac- 
quainted either  in  Maya  or  Nahuatl  art.  Several  of  these 
scenes  represent  the  adoration  of  the  sun  and  of  the  moon, 
or  rather  of  the  gods  presiding  over  these  heavenly  bodies, 
for  men  had  already  adopted  anthropomorphism  and  en- 
dowed their  gods  with  the  human  form.  The  priests  and 
worshippers  are  naked  ;  but  the  ornaments  and  jewels  with 
which  they  are  loaded  are  full  of  interest.  Farther  on  a 
chief  is  seated  on  his  throne,  with  the  ear  distended  by  a 
ring  of  considerable  size  and  weight ;  an  interesting  fact,  for 
we  meet  again  with  this  same  barbarous  custom  imposed  by 
the  Incas  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Peru,  and  the  Mound 
Builders  wore  large  copper  rings  in  the  ears.  The  most  in- 
teresting bas-relief  represents  a  human  sacrifice  (fig.  151); 
the  principal  personage  is  a  priest,  wearing  the  strange  head- 
dress of  a  crab,  holding  in  his  right  hand  a  flint,  probably  the 
sacrificial  knife,  and  in  his  left  hand  the  head  of  the  victim 
whom  he  has  just  killed.  Beneath  are  two  figures,  each  car- 
rying a  human  head.  One  doubtless  represents  Death,  for 


fHE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  373 

his  face  is  that  of  a  skeleton  ;  he  is  girded  with  two  serpents, 
and  the  form  of  his  head  is  like  that  of  an  ape.  The  cut-off 
heads  appear  to  have  belonged  to  a  different  race  from  the 
priest  or  his  assistant. 

The  bodies  are  nude  and  of  correct  proportions;  orna- 
ments are  arranged  so  as  to  hide  the  sexual  organs ;  the  feet 
are  shod  with  sandals,  and  the  features  express  satisfaction. 
Lastly,  it  is  the  head  of  the  victim,  not  the  heart  as  was  the 
invariable  custom  of  the  Aztecs,  which  was  being  presented 
to  the  gods. 

The  sculptures  found  at  Santa  Lucia  are  by  no  means 


FIG.  150. — Stone  head  found  near  Santa  Lucia. 

exceptional.  The  whole  of  Guatemala,  that  ancient  land  of 
the  Quiches  and  Cakchiquels,  is  covered  with  ruins,  among 
which  are  bas-reliefs,  statues  and  monoliths,  some  attaining 
twenty-five  feet  in  height,  and  including  numerous  repre- 
sentations of  men  and  animals.  At  Quirigua  especially,  on 
the  Rio  Motagua,  about  eight  miles  from  Ysabal,  a  little 
port  on  the  Gulf  of  Honduras,  have  been  discovered  a  colos- 
sal head,  and  a  statue  of  a  woman  with  feet  and  hands  mis- 
sing, wearing  on  her  head  a  crowned  idol ;  while,  close  by, 
excavations  have  yielded  the  head  cf  a  tiger  in  porphy- 


FIG.  151. — Human  Sacrifice  ;  bas-relief  from  Sta.  Lucia. 
374 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  375 

ritic  rock  ;  the  terror  that  this  great  feline  animal  inspired 
doubtless  led  to  its  being  admitted  to  the  rank  of  a  god.1 
An  altar,  on  one  of  the  sides  of  which  a  turtle  has  been 
sculptured,  and  lastly  an  idol,  twenty-three  feet  high,  also 
deserve  to  be  mentioned.  All  these  figures  are  menacing 
or  repulsive  ;  human  bodies  are  surmounted  by  the  heads  of 
apes.  Unlike  the  immortal  creators  of  art  in  Greece,  the 
early  Americans  did  not  seek  beauty,  or  rather  they  did  not 
understand  it,  and  their  conceptions  could  not  therefore  be 
of  equal  elevation. 

What  justly  surprises  us  is  the  immense  amount  of  work 
required  in  these  sculptures,  with  such  mechanical  processes 
as  alone  appear  to  have  been  known.  First  of  all,  blocks  of 
hard  stone  had  to  be  got  out  with  wretched  implements  of 
quartz  or  obsidian  ;  and  then  the  granite  or  porphyry  had  to 
be  sawn  into  slabs  with  agave-fibre  and  emery.*  A  rough 
drawing  of  the  outline  indicated  where  the  thickness  was  to 
be  reduced,  and  this  work  was  executed  either  by  sawing  a 
certain  portion,  which  was  immediately  skilfully  chipped, 
or  by  hammering  with  a  flint  point ;  lastly,  with  the  help  of 
flat  stones  or  polishers  and  of  water  mixed  with  emery,  the 
surface  of  the  plane  portions  was  rubbed  so  as  to  remove  all 
traces  of  the  work.  These  processes  were  long,  and  neces- 
sarily required  great  patience  on  the  part  of  the  workmen 
to  obtain  the  desired  results.  This  is  a  certain  indication  of 
a  society  in  its  infancy,  where  men  had  not  yet  learned  to 
recognize  the  value  of  time. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  engravings  on  rock  and  hiero- 
glyphics met  with  in  the  region  occupied  by  the  Cliff  Dwellers 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  pueblos.  We  meet  with  similar 
engravings  and  similar  hieroglyphics  throughout  Central 
America.  The  desire  of  perpetuating  the  memory  of  the 
objects  before  his  eyes  by  imitating  them  is  one  of  the 

1  Stephens  :  "  Central  America,"  vol.  II.,  p.  188.  Scherzer  :  "  Ein  Besuch 
bei  den  Ruinen  von  Quirigua  im  Staate  Guatemala,"  Vienna,  1865. 

Q  Soldi :  "  Les  camees  et  les  pierres  grave'es  Fart  au  moyen  age,  Fart  Khmer, 
les  arts  du  Pe'rou  et  du  Mexique,  Fart  Egyptien,  les  arts  industriels,  des  muse'es 
du  Trocadero,"  Paris,  1880. 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

most  characteristic  peculiarities  of  man.  In  Honduras  is  a 
rock  covered,  as  to  a  great  part  of  its  surface,  by  figures  of 
men,  animals,  and  plants,  engraved  in  taglio  to  a  depth 
of  more  than  two  inches,  and  Pinart  describes  in  the  State 
of  Panama  cliffs  entirely  covered  with  hieroglyphics,  which 
he  tells  us  are  full  of  interest  for  the  student. 

In  Mexico  there  are  paintings,  which  are  regular  annals  of 
the  people,  and  represent  their  first  migrations.  Bancroft 
(vol.  II.,  pp.  544,  545,  547)  reproduces  these  paintings  after 
Gemelli,  Carer,  and  Lord  Kingsborough.  They  are  very 
curious. 

The  museum  of  Mexico  possesses  a  whole  series  of 
paintings,  showing  the  education  of  children,  the  food 
which  was  given  to  them,  the  tasks  which  were  set  them, 
and  the  punishments  which  were  inflicted  upon  them.  Ban- 
croft (vol.  II.,  p.  589)  gives  these  figures  after  the  Codex 
Mendoza. 

These  pictures  have  the  distinct  outlines  and  brilliant 
colors  at  which  the  Aztecs  aimed  above  every  thing,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  in  speaking  of  their  sculptures ;  they  did 
not  aspire  to  an  exact  imitation  of  nature,  still  less  to  a  beau- 
tiful ideal,  which  they  were  incapable  of  understanding. 
"  We  see  in  the  Mexican  paintings,"  says  Humboldt,  "  heads 
of  an  enormous  size,  a  body  extremely  short,  and  feet  which, 
from  the  length  of  the  toes,  look  like  the  claws  of  a  bird. 
All  this  denotes  the  infancy  of  the  art ;  but  we  must  not 
forget  that  people  who  express  their  ideas  by  paintings,  and 
who  are  compelled  by  their  state  of  society  to  make  frequent 
use  of  mixed  hieroglyphical  writing,  attach  as  little  impor- 
tance to  correct  painting,  as  the  literati  of  Europe  to  a  fine 
handwriting  in  their  manuscripts."  Without  agreeing  with 
Humboldt's  comparison,  it  is  certain  that  we  must  not  seek 
amongst  the  Aztecs  for  models  of  decorative  painting  such 
as  those  recently  discovered  in  the  Palatinate  ;  the  ignorance 
of  the  artists  shows  that  their  work  was  a  spontaneous  pro- 
duct of  their  genius,  and  that  they  had  not  been  subjected  to 
any  foreign  influence  on  the  soil  of  America.  According  to 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

tradition  they  borrowed  their  processes  from  the  Toltecs, 
the  initiators  of  all  progress  in  Mexico  and  Central  America. 
After  their  final  victory  it  is  said  that  the  rulers  of  Mexico 
had  the  paintings  destroyed  which  recalled  the  grandeur  of 
those  they  had  conquered.  By  a  just  retribution,  but  un- 
fortunately for  science,  the  Spaniards  in  their  turn  destroyed 
the  Aztec  annals,  and  a  few  incomplete  copies,  a  few  frag- 
ments that  escaped  this  barbarous  destruction,  are  the  only 
original  sources  of  information  from  which  it  is  now  possible 
to  draw. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  the  first  idea  of  the  hieroglyphics. 
First  of  all  engravings  on  rocks  give  the  animate  or  inani- 
mate object  which  struck  the  eye  of  the  artist.  In  all 
ages  this  is  the  primitive  form  of  the  art.  Then  arose  a 
desire  to  represent  not  only  men  or  objects,  but  also  cer- 
tain scenes,  such  as  a  battle,  a  migration,  or  a  fire,  the 
memory  of  which  they  wished  to  preserve.  Later,  by  way 
of  abbreviation,  the  artist  was  content  to  express  names  or 
things  by  conventional  signs.  An  arrow,  for  example,  signi- 
fied an  enemy  ;  several  arrows,  several  enemies  ;  the  direc- 
tion of  the  point,  the  direction  these  enemies  had  taken. 
Often  the  names  themselves  had  a  signification  lending  itself 
to  representation  by  a  figure,  thus  :  Chapultepec,  the  hill  of 
the  grasshopper ;  Tzowpanco,  the  place  of  skulls ;  C/iimal- 
popoca,  the  shield  full  of  smoke  ;  Acamapitzin,  the  hand  full 
of  reeds  ;  Macuilxochitl,  the  five  flowers  ;  Quauhtenclian,  the 
dwelling  of  the  eagle.  In  other  cases  names  are  translated 
by  regular  puns.  To  give  one  instance,  Itzcoatl,  ruler  of 
Mexico,  was  represented  by  a  serpent,  coatl,  pierced  by 
several  splinters  of  obsidian,  itzli.  Hence  by  a  rapid  transla- 
tion was  given,  not  the  true  form  of  the  objects,  but  the 
representation  of  the  name  they  bore  in  the  spoken  lan- 
guage ;  then  by  a  very  simple  link,  signs  were  replaced  by 
letters,  and  an  alphabet  was  complete. 

Hieroglyphics,  true  conventional  signs,  mark  then  a  period 
of  human  evolution.  They  are  met  with  on  the  monuments 
of  Chiapas  as  on  those  of  Yucatan  ;  on  the  walls  of  Palenque 


37$  PRE-H1STOR1C  AMERICA. 

or  Copan,  as  on  those  of  Chichen-Itza  or  Quirigua  (figs.  1 13, 
124,  126,  127,  128,  130);  they  were  sculptured  or  engraved 
on  granite  or  on  porphyry,  with  quartzite  and  obsidian  im- 
plements.1 Iron,  we  repeat,  was  absolutely  unknown  ;  no- 
where do  we  find  it  mentioned,  and  nowhere  do  we  meet 
with  the  characteristic  rust  which  is  the  undeniable  proof  of 
its  presence. 

Hitherto  it  has  been  impossible  to  discover  a  key  by  which 
to  decipher  the  hieroglyphics.  Las  Casas  tells  us  that  in  his 
time  there  were  still  men  learned  in  the  reading  and  the  re- 
production of  these  signs,8  whose  business  it  was  to  register 
events,  noting  the  day,  the  month,  and  the  year  in  which 
they  happened  ;  and  he  adds  that  these  men  so  thoroughly 
understood  what  they  had  written,  and  what  the  ancients 
had  written  before  them,  that  our  letters  would  have  been 
useless  to  them.  In  earlier  times  these  hieroglyphics  were 
executed  by  the  priests  of  the  god  Centeotl,  which  priests 
had  to  be  old  men,  widowers,  and  vowed  to  continence  and 
a  contemplative  life.  It  was  then  a  hieratic  writing,  known 
to  the  initiated  only,  which  is  reproduced  in  the  Maya  manu- 
scripts of  which  we  have  spoken,  especially  in  the  Codex 
Perezianus  and  that  of  Dresden.  Bancroft  (vol.  II.,  p.  771) 
enters  into  minute  details  in  regard  to  these  various  manu- 
scripts. He  reproduces  fragments  of  two  of  them  ;  it  is  easy, 
by  means  of  comparison,  to  make  sure  of  their  similarity  to 
the  hieroglyphics  of  which  we  are  speaking.  Bishop  Diego 
de  Landa  speaks  of  a  graphic  system  3 ;  he  has  even  pre- 
served an  alphabet  of  thirty-three  signs,  one  of  which  is  in- 
tended to  mark  the  aspirate  ;  but  unfortunately  the  alphabet 
has  only  come  down  to  us  in  a  very  imperfect  form  ;  and  in 

1  Gomara  :  "  Conq.  Mex.,"  p.  318.  Clavigero  :  "  Stor.  Ant.  del  Messico," 
vol.  II.,  p.  205. 

1  "  Hist.  Apologetica  de  las  Yndias  Occidentals. " 

*  "  Relacion  de  las  cosas  de  Yucatan,"  published  in  1864 by  Brasseur  de  Bour- 
bourg,  with  a  French  translation.  It  is  fair  to  add  that  the  aim  of  the  bishop 
was  to  prepare  for  the  natives  religious  books  with  signs  which  were  familiar  to 
them.  He  did  not  occupy  himself  with  art,  history,  or  archaeology.  Some  well- 
founded  doubts,  we  must  add,  exist  as  to  the  value  of  his  alphabet. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  3/9 

spite  of  estimable  earnest  works '  on  the  subject,  it  has  been 
impossible  to  decipher,  with  its  help,  either  the  manuscripts, 
or  the  hieroglyphics,  which  according  to  all  appearance  are 
more  ancient  than  they. 

The  letters  given  by  Landa,  however,  sensibly  resemble 
those  of  the  manuscripts";  they  may,  therefore,  be  a  con- 
necting link  between  the  hieroglyphics  and  the  graphic 
writing.  The  words,  arranged  in  the  same  order  as  ours, 
appear  most  probably  to  be  constructed  on  the  polysyn- 
thetic  system,  and  present  that  character  so  characteristic  of 
the  languages  of  the  New  World.  They  were  written  on 
real  paper,  made  either  of  the  root  of  certain  plants,  such  as 
the  agave,  on  prepared  skins,  or  even  on  cotton  cloth. 
Several  leaves  were  enclosed  between  richly  ornamented 
wooden  boards.  These  are  called  analtccs,  and  this  word 
cannot  be  better  rendered  than  by  annals* 

The  Troano  manuscript  is  written  on  a  strip  of  paper 
fourteen  feet  long  by  about  nine  inches  wide.  The  charac- 
ters, which  are  red,  brown,  sometimes  blue,  according  to 
the  text  to  which  they  relate,  are  written  on  both  sides. 
The  paper  opens  out  as  does  a  fan,  and  each  leaf  thus  repre- 
sents thirty-five  pages.  The  chief  manuscripts  which  have 
come  down  to  us,  and  which  must  not  be  confounded  with 
those  already  mentioned,  are  the  Codex  Mendoza,  sent  to 
Charles  V.,  by  the  viceroy  Mendoza,  now  in  the  Bodleian 
Library  at  Oxford,  and  of  which  a  copy  is  in  the  Escurial ; 

1  We  will  mention  L.  de  Rosny  :  "  Essni  de  dechiffrement  de  1'ecriture 
hieralique  de  1'Amerique  Centrale,"  Paris,  1875.  De  Charency,  "  Recherches 
sur  le  Codex  Troano,"  Paris,  1876.  "  Essai  dede'chiffrement  d'une  inscription 
palenqueenne  "  ;  Actesde  le  Soc.  de  Philologie,  vol.  I.,  March,  1878.  Unfor- 
tunately when  this  last  work  appeared,  we  had  only  very  imperfect  reproduc- 
tions of  the  hieroglyphics  of  Palenque.  Charnay  has  lately  sent  to  Paris  plaster 
casts  of  them,  and  every  one  can  now  consult  them  in  the  Trocadero  Museum. 
See  also  Bollaert's  paper  published  in  the  "  Memoirs  of  the  Anthropological 
Society  of  London,"  vol.  II.,  p.  298.  We  do  not  speak  of  the  works  of  the 
Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  which  are  characterized  rather  by  imagination 
than  by  science. 

*Ch.  Rau,  p.  57,  "Smith.  Com.,"  vol.  XXII. 

*  Peter  Martyr,  decade  iv.,  book  viii.  Juan  de  Villagutierre  y  Sotomayor, 
"Hist,  de  la  Conquista  de  la  Province  de  el  Itza,"  Madrid,  1701. 


380  PRE-HISTORIC   AMERICA. 

the  Codex  Telleriano-Remensis  in  the  National  Library  of 
France;  the  Codex  Vaticanus  copied  at  Mexico  in  1566,  in 
the  Vatican  Library  at  Rome  ;  the  Codex  Borgia,  in  the  col- 
lege of  the  Propaganda  at  Rome ;  the  Codex  Bologna,  sup- 
posed to  be  a  treatise  on  astrology ;  and  lastly  a  codex,  the 
origin  of  which  is  unknown,  but  which  we  know  to  have 
been  given  to  the  Emperor  Leopold  in  1677  by  a  duke  of 
Saxe  Eisenach.  Lord  Kingsborough  also  gives  representa- 
tions of  fragments  of  several  other  manuscripts,  and  it  is  to 
his  magnificent  work  that  those  who  wish  to  make  a  special 
study  of  the  subject  should  refer. 

To  sum  up,  the  Mexican  manuscripts  which  have  escaped 
so  many  causes  of  destruction  include  three  very  distinct 
kinds  of  painting :  figurative  painting,  in  which  the  artist 
reproduces  more  or  less  exactly  the  objects  before  his  eyes ; 
symbolical  painting,  in  which  the  object  is  represented  by  a 
conventional  sign ;  and,  lastly,  phonetic  painting,  in  which 
it  is  no  longer  the  object,  but  the  name  it  bears,  that  the 
artist  endeavors  to  give.  These  three  styles  still  existed  in 
Mexico  on  the  arrival  of  the  Spanish,  for  we  know  that 
when  Juan  de  Grijalva  appeared  on  the  coaSt  of  Vera  Cruz, 
the  Cuetlachtlan  chiefs  hastened  to  send  to  Montezuma 
very  exact  paintings  of  the  vessels,  weapons,  and  clothes  of 
these  strangers,  who  already  so  justly  excited  the  alarm  of 
the  Mexicans.1 

The  luxury  of  the  private  life  of  the  wealthy  inhabitants 
of  these  sumptuous  towns  was  on  a  par  with  that  of  the 
public  buildings.  The  chairs  on  which  they  sat  in  the 
Oriental  style  were  of  wood,  often  imitating  the  form  of  an 
animal,  such  as  a  tiger  or  an  eagle,  for  instance.  These 
chairs  were  covered  with  the  tanned  skins  of  deer,  and  orna- 
mented with  embroideries  in  gold  and  silver.  Skins  of  the 
same  kind  were  used  to  decorate  the  walls  of  the  principal 
rooms,  or  they  were  painted  in  gaudy  colors,  red  and  blue 

1  Torquemada :  "  Mon.  Ind."  p.  378  ;  Acosta  :  ' '  Hist,  de  las  Ynd.,"  p  515  ; 
Veytia  :  "  Hist  ant.  de  Mejico,"  vol.  III.,  p.  377  ;  Herrera  :  "  Hist.  Gen.."  dec. 
II.,  book  III.,  ch.  IX. 


THE  RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  381 

being  most  generally  preferred.1  They  had  at  home  vases 
of  agate  or  precious  stone,  ornaments,  statuettes  of  gold  or 
silver  cast  in  one  piece,  eight-sided  dishes,  each  side  of  a 
different  metal,  fish  of  which  the  scales  were  made  of  gold 
and  silver  mixed,  and  parrots  that  moved  their  head  and 
wings.  It  has  even  been  alleged  that  they  were  acquainted 
with  the  art  of  enamelling,  and  that  they  knew  how  to 


FIG.   152. — Earthenware  vase  found  at  Ticul. 

temper  copper  so  as  to  render  it  hard  enough  to  make 
hatchets  and  very  sharp  knives.  The  Peruvians  are  also  said 
to  have  possessed  such  a  secret,  but  no  weapons  or  orna- 
ments have  been  discovered  in  either  country  to  justify  this 
assertion. 

Cortes  mentioned  to  Charles  V.  his  surprise  at  the  num- 
ber of  gold,  silver,  lead,  copper,  and  tin1  ornaments  publicly 
exposed  for  sale.  In  some  places  little  bits  of  tin  were  used 
as  money;  elsewhere  pieces  of  copper,  very  much  like  the 

1  Ordonez  :  "  Palenque,"  quoted  by  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg :  "  Hist,  des  Nat. 
Civilisees,  vol.  II.,  p.  69. 

*  Tin  (tachco)  is  chiefly  found  near  the  town  of  Tazco,  from  which  it  takes 
its  name.  "Carta  secunda  de  Relacion,"  3Oth  Oct.,  1520. 


382  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA, 

tau  (T)  in  form ;  or  quills  filled  with  gold-dust  served  the 
same  purpose.  Trading  was,  however,  chiefly  carried  on  by 
barter,  and  payments,  according  to  Bollaert,  were  made  in 
balls  of  cotton  or  cacao-nibs.  The  copper  objects  often  con- 
tained a  certain  amount  of  silver;  but  as  silver  is  found  in 
copper  in  its  natural  state,  we  must  not,  therefore,  conclude 
that  the  Mexicans  were  acquainted  with  alloys  of  metals. 
The  tissues  used  were  no  less  rich ;  the  goddess  Ixalzavoh, 
it  is  said,  had  herself  taught  the  people  of  Yucatan  the  art 
of  spinning  and  weaving ;  and  the  numerous  and  varied 
dye-woods  of  these  districts  furnished  ample  means  of  color- 
ing cloth. 

The  pottery  was  remarkable,  alike  in  style  and  execution. 
Herrera  speaks  of  a  province  of  Guatemala,  where  it  was 
the  especial  duty  of  the  women  to  make  it,  and  Palacio 
adds,  that  this  manufacture  was  the  chief  industry  of  Agua- 
chipa,  one  of  the  towns  of  the  Pipiles,  of  the  Maya  race, 
who  inhabited  the  territory  now  forming  the  republic  of  San 
Salvador.  We  give  a  reproduction  of  a  vase  found  at  Ticul, 
near  Uxmal,  (fig.  152),  the  monkey  face  forming  the  centre 
of  the  decoration,  is  remarkably  characteristic  of  designs  of 
Palenque.  We  also  give  a  little  terra-cotta  figure  (fig.  153), 
found  in  Chiapas,  near  Ococingo ;  whether  it  be  an  idol  or  a 
grotesque,  it  has  about  it  a  certain  artistic  merit. 

The  Nahuas  were  inferior  in  nothing  to  the  Mayas.  They 
not  only  fashioned  vases  of  the  most  varied  form  for  domes- 
tic use,1  but  also  images  of  the  gods  they  worshipped,  statu- 
ettes of  animals  or  serpents,  censers  in  which  they  burnt 
copal  on  holy  days ;  bowls,  beads  for  personal  ornament, 
and  trumpets  or  flutes,  with  which  they  imitated  the  cry  of 
different  animals. 

"The  different  museums  of  Europe,  such  as  the  Christy  collection  in  Lon- 
don, the  Unde  collection  at  Heidelberg,  and  others,  contain  numerous  speci- 
mens of  the  art  of  American  potters.  Above  all,  we  must  mention  the  Na- 
tional Museum  of  Mexico  ;  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and  the  National  Mu- 
seum at  Washington.  The  catalogue  of  the  first  of  them  was  published  in 
Vol.  III.  of  the  "Philosophical  Transactions,"  and  that  of  the  second  by 
Charles  Rau  :  "Smith.  Contr.,"  vol.  XXII. 


THE   RU1XS  UF  CENTRAL   AMEKICA. 


383 


These  musical  instruments  of  terra  cotta  were  of  very 
fine  workmanship ;  they  were  four  or  five  inches  long,  and 
pierced  with  several  holes,  which  gave  forth  from  two  to  six 
different  notes.  In  nearly  all  of  them  the  mouth  is  modelled 
so  as  to  represent  an  animate  object,  such  as  a  flower,  an 
animal  or  a  man  (fig.  154).  The  human  faces,  like  those  of 


FIG.   153. — Terra-cotta  statuette 
found  at  Ococingo. 


FIG.   154. — Earthenware  flute. 


the  idols  (fig.  155),  are  always  grotesque  and  hideous,  afford- 
ing another  proof  that  these  people  had  no  idea  of  beauty, 
or  rather  of  beauty  such  as  we  conceive  it.  When  the  Mexi- 
cans departed  from  the  human  form,  the  decoration  of  their 
vases  is  perhaps  too  profuse,  but  not  at  all  inartistic  (figs.  156, 
157,  158).  We  mention  especially  a  vase  more  than  twenty- 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


two  inches  high  by  fifteen  in  diameter,  found  in  an  excava- 
tion under  one  of  the  public  squares  of  Mexico,  not  only 


FlG.  155. — Idol  from  Zachila. 


FIG.  156. — Vase  from  the  National 
Museum  of  Mexico. 


FIG.  157. — Vase  belonging  to  the  National  Museum  at  Washington. 


THE   RUINS  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  385 

on  account  of  its  form  and  decoration,  but  because  it  was 
filled  with  human  skulls,  curiously  piled  one  on  top  of  the 
other. 

Some  Mexican  pottery  is  probably  of  great  antiquity,  and 
it  may  even  be  of  earlier  date  than  the  arrival  of  the  Toltecs 
in  Anahuac.  Indeed,  recently  have  been  discovered,  in  a 
cave  of  the  province  of  Durango,  thousands  of  dried  mum- 
mies ;  and  with  these  mummies  hatchets,  arrow-points  of 
flint,  and  vases  remarkable  in  form  and  decoration.1 

The  Aztecs  were  no  less  skilful  in  working  obsidian  than 
in  moulding  clay.  They  made  of  obsidian,  in  spite  of  the 


FIG.  158. — Mexican  vase  in  the  National  Museum  at  Washington. 

difficulties  of  cutting  and  polishing  it,  knives,  razors,  lance- 
or  arrow-heads,  mirrors,  and  sometimes  masks,  which  they 
placed  on  the  faces  of  the  dead  at  the  time  of  the  funeral. 
This  last  custom  was  general,  for  the  chiefs  at  least,  for 
similar  masks  have  been  found  in  several  places,  not  only  in 
obsidian,  but  also  in  marble  or  serpentine.1  Lastly,  the 

1  "  Proc.  Anthr.  Soc.  of  Washington,"  1879,  p.  80. 

1  Math,  de  Fossey  :  "  Le  Mexique,"  Paris,  1857,  p.  213.  It  is  also  a  charac- 
teristic of  the  Aleuts  and  Western  Eskimo  of  the  northwest  coast  of  America, 
and  has  been  treated  of  at  length  in  the  "  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  at 
Washington  for  1883." 


386 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


National  Museum  of  Mexico  contains  numerous  and  inter- 
esting agate,  coral,  and  shell  ornaments.  The  Christy  col- 
lection of  London  is  no  less  rich,  and  from  it  we  illustrate  a 
chalcedony  knife.  The  handle  is  a  mosaic  made  of  tur- 
quoises, malachite,  and  white  or  red  shells.  It  is  surprising 
to  find  a  people  still  in  the  stone  age  executing  such  delicate 
work  with  the  wretched  implements  we  know  of. 

To  sum  up,  every  thing  goes  to  prove  that  the  ancient 
races  of  Central  America  possessed  an  advanced  culture, 
exact  ideas  on  certain  arts  and  sciences,  and  remarkable 


FIG.  159. — Knife  with  chalcedony  blade,  in  the  Christy  collection. 

technical  knowledge.  As  pointed  out  in  1869  by  Morgan, 
in  the  North  American  Review,  the  Spanish  succeeded  in 
destroying  in  a  few  years  a  civilization  undoubtedly  superior 
in  many  respects  to  that  which  they  endeavored  to  substi- 
tute for  it.  We  are  not  at  all  surprised  at  this  severe  judg- 
ment, which  we  should  endorse  if  we  did  not  think  that  the 
suppression  of  the  human  sacrifices,  of  which  we  have  de- 
scribed the  gloomy  horrors,  ought  to  be  taken  into  account 
before  pronouncing  a  final  judgment  on  the  peoples  of  the 
New  World  and  on  their  cruel  and  bigoted  conquerors. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PERU. 

THE  chain  of  the  Andes  traverses  the  whole  of  South 
America,  and  near  the  boundary  between  Bolivia  and  Chili 
it  divides  into  two  branches,  the  principal  still  called  the 
Cordillera  of  the  Andes,  and  the  other  and  nearer  to  the 
Pacific  the  Cordillera  de  la  Costa  parallel  with  the  Pacific, 
which  enclose  between  them,  at  a  height  of  above  3,000  feet, 
the  Dcsaguadero,  a  vast  table-land,  the  area  of  which  is 
equal  to  that  of  France.  At  one  of  the  extremities  of  this 
table-land  is  Potosi,  the  most  elevated  town  of  the  globe, 
13,330  feet  above  the  sea  level ;  and  on  the  north  is  Cuzco, 
the  ancient  capital  of  the  Incas;  whilst  between  them  lies 
Lake  Titicaca,  the  greatest  body  of  fresh  water  in  South 
America. 

The  whole  country  is  dreary  and  desolate ;  no  luxuriant 
vegetation  breaks  the  gloom  of  the  landscape ;  cereals  can- 
not ripen,  and  animals  are  rare.  Between  the  Cordillera  de 
la  Costa  and  the  ocean  are  arid  rocks,  sands  on  which  noth- 
ing can  grow,  resembling  the  great  deserts  of  Africa,1  with  a 
few  valleys,  formed  by  the  tributaries  of  the  Amazon,  and 
swallowed  up  in  these  vast  solitudes,  the  sole  possessors  of 
the  wealth  of  tropical  nature. 

Nowhere  in  the  world;  perhaps,  has  man  displayed  greater 
energy.  It  was  in  these  desolate  regions  that  arose  the  most 
powerful  and  most  highly  civilized  empire  of  the  two 
Americas,  and  at  the  present  day  its  memory  is  everywhere 
preserved  in  the  imposing  ruins  covering  the  country,  the 

1  "Sahara  is  a  thing  of  beauty,  and  Arizona  a  joy  forever,  compared  with 
the  coast  of  Peru."  Squier,  "  Peru,"  p.  25. 


388  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

fortress  defending  it,  the  roads  intersecting  it,  the  accquias 
or  canals  conducting  the  water  needed  for  fertilizing  the 
fields,  the  tambos  or  houses  of  refuge  in  the  mountains  for 
the  use  of  travellers,1  the  potteries,  the  linen  and  cotton 
cloth,  and  the  ornaments  of  gold  and  silver  concealed  in  the 
graves,  and  which  are  sought  for  by  the  Tapadas  with  insati- 
able zeal.2 

The  empire  of  the  Incas,  of  which  we  are  now  to  speak, 
was  three  thousand  miles  in  length  by  four  hundred  in 
width,  between  S.  Lat.  4°  and  34° — i.  e.,  from  the  river 
Andasmayo  of  the  north  of  Quito  to  the  river  Maule  in 
Chili.  It  included  within  its  limits  Peru,3  Bolivia,  Ecua- 
dor, part  of  Chili,  and  the  Argentine  Republic.  It  was  as 
much  as  one  million  square  miles  in  area,  and  when,  under 
the  Inca  Huayna-Capac,  it  had  reached  the  culminating 

1  The  Qquichua  name  was  tampu,  and  tambo  is  a  Spanish  corruption. 

8  Montesinos  :  "  Memorias  antiguas  historiales  del  Peru."  Ternaux  Compans 
published  a  French  translation  in  1840  ;  its  facts  are  mingled  with  many 
fables.  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega  :  "  Los  Comentarios  renlcs  que  tratan  del  origen 
de  los  Incas,  reyes  que  fueron  del  Peru,"  2  vols  ,  fol.,  Lisbon,  1609-1616  ; 
"  Hist  des  Incas,  rois  du  Perou,"  French  translation,  Paris,  1744.  It  is  the 
most  complete  account  which  we  have  of  the  history  of  the  Incas,  but  Garcilasso, 
from  his  retirement  in  Spain,  wrote  forty  years  after  the  events  of  which  he  wns 
witness,  and  with  an  evident  partiality  for  the  Incas,  from  whom  he  was 
descended  by  the  mother's  side.  "  Tres  relacions  de  Antiguedades  Peruanas 
publicalas  el  Ministerio  de  Fomento,"  Madrid,  1879.  This  volume  contains 
"  Relacion  por  el  Licenciado  Fernando  de  Santillon  "  ;  "  Rel.  Anonima  "  ; 
"  Rel.  porD.  Joan  de  Santa  Cruz  Pachacuti."  Humbolclt  :  "  VuesdesCordillercs 
et  Mon.  des  Peuples  indigenes  de  1'  Amerique,"  Paris,  1810.  D'Orbigny  : 
"  L'Homme  Americain,"  Paris,  1834-1847  (Extract  from  "  Voy.  dans  1'Amer. 
Meridionale,"  9  vols.,  4°).  E.  de  Rivero  et  Tschudi  :  "  Antiguedades  Peruanas," 
Vienna,  1851,  and  "  Die  Kechua  Sprache,"  Vienna,  1853.  W.  H.  Prescott  : 
"  Hist,  of  the  Conquest  of  Peru,"  7th  edition,  London,  1854.  Hutchinson  : 
"  Two  Years  in  Peru."  E.  Desjardins  :  "  Le-Perou  avant  la  Conquete  Espag- 
nole,"  Paris,  1858.  W.  Bollaert :  "Antiquarian,  Ethnological,  and  other 
Resarches  in  New  Granada,  Ecuador,  Peru,  and  Chili,"  London,  1860.  Mateo 
Paz  Soldan :  "  Geog.  del  Peru,"  Paris,  1862.  V.  F.  Lopez:  "  Les  Races 
Aryennes  du  Perou,"  Paris  and  Montevideo,  1871.  Squier  :  "Peru,  Incidents 
of  Travel  and  Exploration  in  the  Land  of  the  Incas,"  2d  edition,  London,  1878. 
C.  Wiener  :  "  Perou  et  Bolivie,"  Paris,  Hachette,  1880. 

"The  name  of  Peru  is  a  Spanish  invention.  The  inhabitants  called  it  Tavan- 
tisuyu,  literally  "  the  four  parts  of  the -world," 


PERU.  389 

point  of  its  grandeur,  its  population  may  possibly  have  num- 
bered from  ten  to  eleven  million  souls.1 

The  origin  of  the  Incas  is  unknown,  and  there  is  nothing 
known  of  the  real  history  of  the  country  covering  more  than 
four  hundred  years  before  the  Spanish  conquest.  Accord- 
ing to  tradition  Manco-Capac  and  the  beautiful  Mama-CEllo, 
his  sister  and  his  wife,  made  known  the  first  elements  of 
civilization  to  tribes  which  had  previously  been  savage  and 
barbarous.  In  obedience  to  them  these  men  broke  their 
idols  to  adore  a  spirit,  Creator  and  Preserver  of  the  world,  of 
whom  the  sun  and  the  moon  were  the  visible  form.  Mon- 
tesinos  gives  the  history  of  one  hundred  and  one  rulers 
who,  after  Manco-Capac,  wore  the  head-dress  (llaiitii)  denot- 
ing their  sovereignty,  and  he  dates  their  origin  from  the  fifth 
century  before  the  deluge. 

In  this  account  a  little  truth  is  mixed  with  much  fable.  It 
is  certain  that  before  the  time  of  Manco-Capac  the  in- 
habitants of  the  country  were  by  no  means  plunged  in 
barbarism.  The  Qquichua  culture  had  a  past,  of  which  the 
theocratic  and  social  organization  founded  by  the  first  Inca 
was  but  a  development.  Numerous  buildings  are  un- 
doubtedly earlier  than  the  Incas,  at  least  than  those  of 
whom  authentic  history  has  preserved  an  account.  They 
are  distinguished  by  their  more  massive  character,  their 
bolder  and  more  artistic  construction,  and  by  certain  general 
features  presenting  some  resemblances  to  sundry  Asiatic 
monuments."  As  for  the  narrative  of  Montesinos  it  doubt- 
less refers  in  part  to  the  history  of  different  people  or  tribes, 
the  union  of  which  later  formed  the  dominion  of  the  Incas. 
These  people  certainly  had  common  bonds  of  union.  A 
curious  analogy  is  presented  by  the  monuments  which  may 
be  attributed  to  them,  the  sepulchral  tumuli,  fortresses,  and 
temples  preserve  similarities  of  style  from  Arica  to  San 

1 A  census  ordered  by  Philip  II.  indicated  no  more  than  eight  million  two 
hundred  and  eighty  thousand,  and  at  the  present  day  the  population  of  these 
countries  does  not  amount  to  half  this  number. 

1  Angrand  :  "  Lettre  sur  les  Antiquite's  de  Tiaguanaco,"  Paris,  1866.  Allen  : 
"  La  tres  Ancienne  Ame'rique,"  Nancy,  1874. 


390  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Jos6 ;  everywhere  the  ornaments,  pottery,  and  mode  of 
burial  are  identical ;  every  thing  indicates  a  common 
origin. 

At  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest  those  aboriginal  races 
were  represented  by  the  Aymaras,  who  inhabited  the  table- 
land of  the  Andes,  and  the  Qquichuas,  established  around 
Cuzco.1  D'Orbigny  is  of  opinion  that  the  differences  be- 
tween them  were  rather  apparent  than  real.  There  are 
decided  analogies  in  the  grammatical  structure  of  their 
language  ;  a  great  number  of  the  words  are  the  same,  and 
the  differences  we  notice  are  such  as  are  usually  met  with  in 
dialects  eminating  from  a  single  source.2  Side  by  side  with 
these  undeniable  relations,  however,  there  are  dissimilarities 
so  marked  that  they  must  be  attributed  to  different  biologi- 
cal conditions,  and  we  conclude  that,  if  there  be  a  kinship 
between  these  races,  their  common  origin  must  be  carried 
back  to  a  remote  period. 

To  sum  up :  In  the  present  state  of  knowledge,  it  is 
difficult  to  determine  the  connection  between  the  Aymaras 
and  the  Qquichuas,  and  we  cannot  do  better  than  compare 
it  with  that  which  we  have  pointed  out  between  the  Mayas 
and  the  Quiches,  or  better  still  between  the  Toltecs  and 
the  Aztecs.  Whilst  admitting  the  possibility  of  this  hy- 
pothesis, there  is  yet  another,  even  more  plausible,  which 
Humboldt  was  the  first  to  advance,  and  which  Angrand  up- 
holds with  weighty  reasons.  The  Qquichuas  may  have  come 
from  the  north,  probably  several  centuries  after  the  Aymaras, 
and  we  must  look  for  their  ancestors  among  the  prolific  races 
of  Central  America.3 

'Markham:  "The  Tribes  of  the  Empire  of  the  Incas,"  Royal  Geog.  Soc., 
1871.  D'Orbigny:  "  L'Homme  Americain,"  vol.  II.,  p.  306.  Forbes  :"  The 
Aymara  Indians,"  Joum.  of  the  Ethn.  Soc.,  London,  1870.  Ch.  Wiener: 
"  Perou  et  Bolivia,"  Paris,  1880. 

*  Don  V.  F.  Lopez  supposed  Qquichua  to  be  an  Aryan  language  ;  but  in  that 
case  would  it  have  remained  agglutinative  with  words  such  as  Mananccallaby- 
cucullahuancupasraocchu  (they  have  not  had  the  kindness  or  the  charity  to  think 
of  me).  See  also  Tschudi  :  "  Die  Kechua  Sprache,"  Cong,  des  Ame'rican- 
istes,  Luxembourg,  1877,  vol.  II.,  p.  75. 

'Angrand,  /.  c.,  p.  37 et seq. 


PERU.  391 

Setting  aside  conjectures  more  or  less  justified,  the  native 
account  generally  accepted  shows  us  Manco-Capac  reigning 
from  1021  to  1062,  while  by  another  version  he  only  reigned 
thirty-six  years  and  died  in  1054.  Fourteen  Incas  succeeded 
him,  several  of  whom  were  remarkable  men,  under  whom 
the  government  became  consolidated  and  increased  in  terri- 
tory.1 The  last  was  Atahualpa,  whose  short  reign  was 
marked  by  a  fierce  struggle  with  his  brother  Huascar,  and 
by  the  cruel  massacres  which  terminated  it. 

A  more  dangerous  enemy  was  about  to  appear ;  Pizarro 
disembarked  in  the  Bay  of  San  Mateo  in  1534,*  having  with 
him  three  vessels,  174  men  and  twenty-seven  horses.  A 
little  later  he  received  a  reinforcement  of  130  men.  It  was 
before  these  feeble  forces  that  the  empire  of  the  Incas  was 
to  succumb.  Atahualpa  was  beaten  and  made  prisoner  at 
Caxalmalca.  A  little  later,  implicated  in  a  probably  imagi- 
nary conspiracy,  he  was"  condemned  to  perish  by  fire.  In 
vain  he  offered,  to  save  his  life,  to  fill  one  of  the  rooms  of  his 
palace,  as  high  as  a  Spaniard  on  foot  could  reach  with  his 
hand,  with  ornaments,  vases,  and  gold  and  silver  jewels. 
This  room,  according  to  Xeres  the  secretary  of  Pizarro,  was 
twenty-two  feet  long  by  seventeen  wide  The  conquista- 
dores  accepted  his  riches,  but  the  only  favor  the  unfortunate 
Inca  could  obtain,  and  that  on  condition  that  he  would  re- 
ceive baptism,  was  that  of  being  strangled  instead  of  being 
burnt.  The  notary  Sanchez  has  preserved  for  us  the  act, 
dated  the  i/thof  June,  1533,  sanctioning  the  division  of  the 
ransom  of  the  Inca.  Pizarro  received  for  his  share  2350 
marks  of  silver  and  57,220  pieces  of  gold ;  his  brother 
Hernandez,  1,267  marks  of  silver  and  31,080  pieces  of  gold. 
The  church  deducted  to  begin  with,  as  tithe,  90  marks 
of  silver  and  2,220  pieces  of  gold. 

It  is  not  our  intention  to  relate  here,  either  the  history ' 

1  "  No  ha  habido  en  la  tierra  monarcas  mas  despoticos  que  los  Incas,  Eran 
adorados  como  seras  sobrinaturales."  Paz-Soldan,  "  Geog.  del  Peru." 

*  A  first  exploration  of  the  coast  of  Peru  by  Pizarro  took  place  in  1524,  under 
the  reign  of  Huayna-Capac.  F.  Xeres  :  "  Rel.  de  la  Conq.  du  Perou  "  ;  Ternaux- 
Compans,  translation. 

"Itineraries    of    Francisco    and    Hernandez    Pizarro,"   published    for   th« 


392  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

of  the  Incas  or  that  of  the  Spanish  domination.  What  we 
want  to  do  is  to  make  known  the  strange  people  who,  in 
spite  of  the  obstacles  due  to  an  inhospitable  region,  suc- 
ceeded in  occupying  the  first  place  among  the  nations  of 
South  America ;  and  this  we  shall  do  by  describing  the 
ruins,  and  products  of  art  and  industry,  left  behind  by  them, 
and  by  studying  their  manners,  laws,  and  religious  ideas. 
We  shall  tell  what  were  Pachacamac,  Chimu,  Tiaguanaco, 
Titicaca,  Cuzco,  and  other  towns,  with  the  important  monu- 
ments of  every  kind,  of  which  the  ruins  bear  witness.  Un- 
fortunately man  is  daily  busy  in  effecting  their  destruction  ; 
intoxicated  by  the  innumerable  legends  on  the  hidden  riches 
of  the  Incas,  the  treasure-seekers  or  tapadas  dig  zealously 
everywhere  ;  the  walls  are  crumbling  beneath  the  pick-axe ; 
the  sculptures  are  breaking ;  the  subterranean  passages  are 
falling  in  ;  all  the  mementos  of  a  great  past  are  disappearing, 
and  men  are  overturning  in  an  instant  what  has  been  re- 
spected for  centuries. 

Pachacamac  *  is  situated  on  the  Pacific,  twenty  miles  from 
Lima.  A  few  miserable  reed  huts  have  replaced  the  sacred 
town  of  the  ancient  Peruvians,  with  a  few  ruins,  difficult  even 
to  describe,  of  monuments  that  at  the  time  of  the  arrival  of 
the  first  Inca,  were  already  old.  A  silence,  scarcely  broken 
by  the  flight  of  a  few  condors,  reigns  in  districts  where  pil- 
grimages once  attracted  an  immense  concourse  of  the  faith- 
ful, and  a  single  burial-place  (figs.  160,.  161)  of  considerable 
extent,  remains  the  sole  witness  of  bygone  grandeur. 

According  to  Estete,  one  of  the  companions  of  Hernandez 
Pizarro,  who  was  sent  by  his  brother  to  reduce  Pachacamac 
to  submission,  the  town  was  large,  and  near  the  temple  rose 
a  house  surrounded  by  a  series  of  five  walls  which  was  called 
"  The  house  of  the  Sun."  There  were  also,  he  tells  us, 
many  other  large  houses,  with  terraces  similar  to  those  met 
with  in  Spain.  It  must  have  been  a  very  ancient  town, 

Hakluyt  Society  by  C.  R.  Markham,  London,  1872.  Consult  Desjardins'  ex- 
cellent work,  "  Le  Perou  avant  la  Conquete  Espagnole." 

1  From^acAa,  the  earth,  and  camac,  participle  of  camani  to  create.  Desjar- 
dins (note  I,  p.  23,)  however  gives  another  etymology. 


PERU. 


393 


judging  from  the  numerous  buildings  in  ruins.  At  the  time 
of  this  writer  the  whole  town  was  surrounded  by  a  wall, 
already  in  ruins  in  several  places,  and  with  large  doors  open- 
ing out  of  it. 

El  Castillo,  to  which  Estete's  description  doubtless  refers, 
rose  from  a  rock  500  feet  above  the  sea-level.  The  walls  of 
the  rock  were  faced  with  adobes  painted  red,  forming  four 
terraces,1  one  behind  the  other.  This  is  an  arrangement 
resembling  that  noticed  in  Central  America,1  and  bears 


FIG.  160. — Peruvian  mummy.  FIG.  161. — Peruvian  mummy. 

witness  to  the  relation  which  certainly  existed  between  the 
inhabitants  of  the  two  areas.  The  platform  covers  several 
acres  of  ground,  and  on  it  the  ruins  of  what  were  once  im- 
portant buildings  can  still  be  discerned.  The  temple  faced 
the  south.  Estete  goes  on  to  tell  us  that  it  was  a  fine 
house,  well  painted  and  decorated,  and  that  in  a  very  dark 
and  offensively-smelling  recess,  always  kept  closed,  was  a 
wooden  idol,  which  represented  for  these  people  the  image 

'Such  is  Squier's  account.  Wilkes  ("  U.  S.  Exploring  Expedition  ")  and 
Markham  ("  Cuzco  and  Lima  ")  speak  of  only  three  terraces. 

*  The  pyramidal  mound  of  Cholula  may  especially  be  compared  with  it. 
Hutchinson  :  "  Two  Years  in  Peru,"  vol.  I.,  p.  159-303.  Markham  :  "Cuzco 
and  Lima." 


394 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


of  the  Creator.  At  its  feet  were  numerous  gold  and  silver 
ornaments,  the  offerings  of  the  worshippers  of  the  god. 
None  but  the  priest  were  allowed  to  enter  this  recess. 

After  a  visit  to  the  sanctuary,  which  quite  stupefied  the 
natives  with  astonishment,  Hernandez  destroyed  the  image 
of  Pachacamac,  after  whom  the  town  was  called.  He  was 
still  more  eager  to  take  possession  of  the  treasure,  and  con- 
temporary chroniclers  relate  that  the  Spanish  obtained 
twenty-seven  cargas'of  gold  and  16,000  ounces  of  silver ; 
unfortunately,  they  add,  they  were  not  able  to  discover  the 
principal  treasure  which  may  have  amounted  to  400  cargas 
of  gold. 


FIG.  162. — Niche  in  a  wall  at  Pachacamac. 

A  mile  and  a  half  from  El  Castillo,  near  a  little  lake,  the 
ruins  of  a  nuns'  convent  (Mamacuna)  still  exist.  The  de- 
tails of  the  structure  remind  us  of  those  of  the  buildings  of 
the  Incas ;  and  the  erection  of  this  convent  is  therefore  at- 
tributed to  them  ;  by  skilful  policy  they  were  careful  to 
show  veneration  for  this  spot,  so  sacred  to  their  subjects. 

Garcillasso  relates  that  the  whole  of  the  coast,  from  Trux- 
illo,  a  modern  town  founded  in  1535  by  Pizarro,  to  Tumbez, 
for  an  extent  of  more  than  six  hundred  and  twenty-five 
miles,  belonged  to  a  people  known  under  the  name  of  Chimus. 

1  The  carga  equals  about  62  Ibs. 


PERU.  395 

Montesinos  alone  speaks  of  the  origin  of  this  people.  His 
idea  is  that  the  strangers  came  from  the  ocean,  and  that, 
more  warlike  and  better  armed  than  the  natives,  they  rapidly 
reduced  to  submission  all  who  lived  between  the  sea  and  the 
mountains.  We  have  already  remarked  that  Montesinos'  ac- 
counts must  be  received  with  caution  ;  but  in  this  case  they 
are  corroborated  by  the  singular  resemblance  of  the  "  hua- 
cas  "  we  are  about  to  describe,  with  the  teocallis  of  Mexico 
and  Central  America.  Such  a  resemblance  cannot  be  acci- 
dental. Historians  add  '  that,  at  the  time  of  Pachacutec, 
the  ninth  Inca,  the  country  was  governed  by  Chimu-Canchu, 
who  was  greatly  dreaded  by  his  neighbors.  Yupanqui,  son 
of  Pachacutec,  wished  to  compel  Canchu  to  acknowledge 
himself  the  vassal  of  Pachacutec,  .and  to  give  up  the  worship 
of  animals,2  and  to  adore  the  sun-god.  A  bloody  war  suc- 
ceeded the  refusal  of  Canchu  ;  but  the  Chimus  were  com- 
pelled to  give  way  before  superior  numbers  and  submit  to 
the  conquerors.  From  this  moment  until  the  arrival  of  the 
Spanish,  their  history  may  be  summed  up  as  a  perpetual 
series  of  revolts  which  show  their  horror  of  a  foreign  yoke. 

Their  capital,  which  also  bore  the  name  of  Chimu,  cov- 
ered a  considerable  area.  The  ruins  extended  from  the  Monte 
Campana  on  the  north  to  the  Rio  Moche  on  the  south,  over 
an  area  of  twelve  and  one  half  to  fifteen  miles  long  by  from 
five  to  five  and  a  half  miles  wide 

In  every  direction,  for  an  extent  of  several  leagues,  long 
lines  of  massive  walls,  huacas,'  palaces,  aqueducts,  reservoirs 
of  water,  and  granaries  can  be  made  out.  Every  thing 
proves  the  power  and  wealth  of  a  people,  the  very  name  of 
whom  has  remained  uncertain. 

Of  the  monuments,  the  huacas  are  the  most  important. 

1  Garcilasso,  /.  c.,  vol.  I.  p.  234. 

*  The  animals  which  were  the  objects  of  their  adoration  were  probably  sym- 
bolical ;  fishes,  the  tortoise,  and  the  crab  represented  water ;  the  serpent  and 
the  lizard,  the  earth.  The  lance,  also  met  with  in  the  temple,  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  symbol  of  thunder  and  lightning. 

a  The  word  huaca  usually  denotes  a  sepulchre,  but  its  meaning  is  extended  to 
embrace  any  consecrated  or  venerated  spot. 


39^  PXE-1I1STOR1C  AMERICA. 

This  is  a  name  given  to  truncated  pyramids  nearly  always 
built  of  stones,  cemented  with  a  very  plastic  clay  and  form- 
ing a  durable  conglomerate.  The  Obispo  huaca,  one  of  the 
most  remarkable,  is  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
high,  with  a  base  of  five  hundred  and  eighty  feet  square  ;  it 
covers,  says  Squier,1  an  area  of  eight  acres,  and  it  is  esti- 
mated that  nearly  fifty  million  cubic  feet  of  materials  were 
used  in  its  construction.  Excavations  have  been  made  on 
the  faith  of  legends  telling  of  subterranean  chambers  filled 
with  gold  and  silver,  and  Squier,  one  of  the  last  travellers  to 
visit  it,  tells  us  that  it  looks  from  a  distance  like  the  huge 
crater  of  a  volcano. 

Another  huaca  rises  not  far  from  Obispo,  in  the  centre  of 
an  enclosure  of  adobe  two  hundred  and  fifty-two  feet  by  two 
hundred  and  twenty-two.  Its  walls  measure  fourteen  feet 
in  height  by  six  feet  in  breadth  at  their  base.  We  mention 
it,  though  its  height  is  not  considerable,  on  account  of  the 
bones  which  it  encloses,  and  which  are  the  best  proof  we 
have  of  the  purpose  of  at  least  a  certain  number  of  these 
huacas. 

The  abodes  of  the  dead,  in  every  variety  of  form,  appear 
to  be  the  last  mementos  of  this  people,  and  are  met  with  all 
about  the  neighborhood  of  Chimu.  A  vast  sandy  plain 
stretches  away  to  the  sea,  overlooked  by  a  hill  on  which 
rises  a  huaca,  like  an  outpost ;  this  plain  is  covered  with 
graves,  where  lay  skeletons  very  irregularly  buried  in  the 
most  varied  positions,  victims  doubtless  of  the  battles  in 
which  the  Chimus  defended  their  independence.  This  is 
a  plausible  idea,  for  a  great  many  skulls  are  fractured  as  if 
by  the  blow  of  a  club,  and  others  have  holes  in  them,  such 
as  might  have  been  made  by  the  bronze  arrow-points  picked 
up  in  the  same  place. 

Skirting  along  this  plain  we  come  to  the  little  village  of 
Moche.  This  village  possesses  a  huaca,  which  passes  as  the 
most  considerable  of  any  in  the  country.*  El  templo  del  Sol 

1  "  Peru,"  p.  120. 

*  Squier  :  "  Peru."  p.  130. 


PERU.  397 

(all  the  important  ruins  of  Peru  are  called  temples  of  the 
sun)  is  a  rectangular  building  eight  hundred  feet  long  by 
four  hundred  and  seventy  broad.  It  covers  an  area  of  more 
than  seven  acres,  and  its  greatest  height  is  two  hundred  feet. 
The  mode  of  construction  is  very  peculiar:  Huge  blocks  of 
adobes,  at  a  short  distance  from  one  another,  form  pillars, 
inclined  at  an  angle  of  seventy-seven  degrees.  These  pillars 
were  covered  with  a  very  thick  stucco  which  secured  the 
stability  of  the  platform,  which  was  crowned  by  several 
buildings,  of  which  no  traces  can  be  made  out.  At  the 
southern  extremity  rises  a  truncated  pyramid,  formed  of  re- 
ceding terraces  one  above  the  other.  Seven  of  these  terraces 
are  still  standing  and  an  attentive  examination  justifies  us 
in  assuming  the  original  number  to  have  been  nine ;  the 
summit  was  reached  by  a  slope  so  gentle  as  to  be  impercep- 
tible. The  rooms,  recesses,  and  subterranean  passages  have 
been  excavated,  but  without  more  success  than  at  the 
Obispo  huaca.  All  they  revealed  was  that  these  two  huacas 
were  not  burial-places,  as  was  at  first  supposed. 

The  palace1  included  an  irregular  series  of  buildings  in 
adobes,  covering  an  area  of  several  acres,  and  rising  from  a 
mound  made  up  of  successive  terraces.  The  external  walls 
were  ornamented  in  such  a  manner  as  to  break  their  mo- 
notony. We  give  a  drawing  of  one  of  the  most  usual  modes 
of  treatment,  which  will  give  an  idea  of  the  general  effect 
(fig.  163).  The  interior  included  a  series  of  halls,  rooms, 
corridors  and  vaulted  crypts.  One  of  these  rooms  is  more 
than  fifty-two  feet  in  width ;  but  its  length  remains  uncer- 
tain, on  account  of  the  rubbish  with  which  it  is  choked  up. 
It  certainly,  however,  exceeded  one  hundred  feet.  The 
walls  are  richly  ornamented  with  stuccos  in  relief,  fine  ara- 
besques, and  Greek  frets,  reminding  us  of  those  of  Mitla.  At 
a  height  of  about  twelve  feet  we  notice  several  niches  five 
feet  wide.  These  niches  are  one  of  the  most  striking  charac- 
teristics of  Peruvian  architecture,  but  it  is  impossible  to  as- 

1  We  retain  the  name  palace  given  by  Squier.  This  building,  or  rather  this 
collection  of  buildings,  was  evidently  used  as  a  palace. 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


certain  their  purpose.  In  other  rooms  the  walls  are  covered 
with  a  coating  of  color,  generally  dark  red.  There  is  a  cor- 
ridor, the  door  opening  into  which  consists  of  a  double  row 
of  pilasters,  whilst  the  walls  are  covered  with  figures  in  re- 
lief, which  have  been  supposed  to  represent  monkeys,  carry- 
ing on  their  heads  a  sort  of  half  moon.  This  ornament  must 
have  had  some  special  signification,  for  it  is  often  repeated 
on  the  pottery  and  metal  vases  of  the  Chimus. 


FIG.  163. — Ruined  walls  at  Chimu. 

Colonel  la  Rosa,  one  of  the  most  eager  and  fortunate  of 
the  tapadas,  discovered  in  a  vault  of  the  shape  of  a  well, 
which  he  had  to  get  into  through  a  narrow  opening,  a  con- 
siderable collection  of  gold  and  silver  vases  (fig.  164),  some 
of  which  were  covered  with  ornaments  in  relief.  The  body 
of  these  vases  was  very  thin,  those  in  silver  had  a  large  ad- 
mixture of  copper,  and  were  in  such  a  state  of  oxidation  that 
they  broke  in  the  fingers  of  the  excavators.  Unfortunately, 


PERU. 


399 


nearly  all  were  melted  down  immediately  after  their  discov- 
ery. The  vase  of  which  we  give  a  drawing  is  in  the  Squier 
collection,  and  is  one  of  the  few  which  have  been  preserved. 
The  disorder  in  which  these  costly  articles,  evidently  hidden 
in  haste,  were  found,  leads  us  to  suppose  that  an  effort  was 
made  to  place  them  in  safety,  either  during  the  struggles  be- 
tween the  Chimus  and  the  Incas,  or  on  the  arrival  of  the 
conquistadores. 

The  necropolis  of  the  rulers  of  Chimu  was  a  short  distance 
from  their  palaces.2  An  excavation  has  laid  bare  walls  of 
immense  thickness,  the  length  of  which  has  nowhere  been 
verified.  A  staircase  led  to  a  series 
of  vaulted  chambers,  all  with  one  or 
more  niches.  In  these  niches  reclined 
dried-up  mummies,  the  skulls  of 
some  of  which  were  painted  red, 
while  others,  if  we  accept  Colonel  La 
Rosa's  account,  were  gilded.  The 
bodies  were  clothed  in  rich  stuffs, 
and  wore  feather  crowns  and  gold 
and  silver  ornaments.  These  orna- 
ments have  disappeared,  and  Squier 
was  only  able  to  procure  a  few  frag- 
ments of  a  stuff  made  of  cotton  and 
wool,  with  figures  of  lizards  and  birds 
of  the  most  varied  colors  woven  in 
with  the  woof. 

We  will  not  pause  to  give  a  detailed  account  of  all  the 
ruins  of  Chimu  ;  el  Presidio,  the  prison,  alone  deserves  to  be 
excepted.  This  is  an  enclosure  320  feet  by  240,  surrounded 
by  a  wall  twenty-five  feet  high  by  five  and  a  half  at  the  base. 
In  the  centre  is  a  mound,  the  foundations  of  which,  of  ex- 
ceptional solidity,  rest  upon  huge  blocks  of  stone.  Excava- 
tions have  brought  to  light,  a  little  below  the  level  of  the 
soil,  forty-five  cells  arranged  in  five  rows,  and  without  any 
communication  between  them.  Hence  the  name  of  the 


FIG.  164. — Silver  cup  found 
at  Chimu. 


9  Squier:  "Peru,"  p.  144. 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

building,  and  if  it  be  really  a  prison  the  inhabitants  of  Chimu 
were  the  first  to  conceive  the  idea  of  what  we  may  call  the 
cellular  system.  Wiener  remarks  that  the  present  town, 
built  in  1533,  has  been  thrown  down  three  times  by  earth- 
quakes. The  solidity  of  the  buildings  of  the  ancient  in- 
habitants enabled  them  to  resist  these  terrible  shocks. 

At  Chimu  we  can  make  out  private  houses.  This  is  rare 
enough,  for  in  most  ruined  towns  the  monuments  alone  have 
resisted  the  inroads  of  time,  and  the  far  more  formidable 
devastations  of  man.  These  buildings,  some  round,  some 
square,  were  arranged  with  great  regularity  in  streets  or 
squares.  The  rooms,  of  course,  vary  in  number  and  size,  the 
largest  reached  twenty-five  feet  in  length  by  twelve  in 
height.  A  very  curious  piece  of  pottery  represents  a  house 
with  a  pointed  roof,  a  single  door,  and  a  hole  in  the  gable, 
probably  to  ensure  ventilation.  These  must  have  been  the 
homes  of  the  people,  and  their  number  bears  witness  to  a 
considerable  population.1 

Tiaguanaco  2  rises  in  the  centre  of  a  basin  formed  by  two 
lakes  of  very  unequal  size,  that  of  Titicaca  and  that  of  Aul- 
lagas,  on  a  table-land  surrounded  by  lofty  mountains,  over- 
looked by  Illampu,  which  is  18,000  feet  high,  and  is  the 
loftiest  mountain  of  South  America.  This  table-land  is 
12,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  almost  at  the  line  of 
perpetual  snow.  At  this  height  vegetation  is  impossible,  no 
cereal  can  ripen,  breathing  is  difficult,  there  is  nothing  pro- 
duced by  which  life  might  be  sustained. 

In  this  arid  and  desolate  region,  so  difficult  of  access,  men 
had,  however,  erected  an  important  town  and  remarkable 
buildings.3  Garcilasso  relates  that  when  Mayta-Capac,  the 
fourth  Inca,  for  the  first  time  penetrated  into  the  country, 
the  sight  of  these  monuments  awoke  in  the  Peruvians  a  pro- 
found astonishment,  and  they  were  at  a  loss  to  make  out 

1  Squier,  loc.  cit.,  p.  181. 

*  Such  is  the  name  given  to  the  town  by  the  Incas.  Its  ancient  name  remains 
unknown.  Angrand  :  "  Lettre  sur  les  Ant.  de  Tiaguanaco." 

1  Desjardins  :  '•  Le  Perou  avant  la  domination  Espagnole."  Rivery  and 
Tschudi :  "Ant.  Peruanas." 


PERU. 


401 


what  processes  had  been  employed  in  their  construction. 
Tiaguanaco  was  the  seat  of  a  civilization  at  once  the  most 
ancient  and  the  most  brilliant  in  South  America.  This  con- 
tinued contrast  between  nature  and  the  works  of  man  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  points  of  the  study  we  are  pursuing. 
On  his  arrival  in  the  midst  of  the  ruins,  the  explorer  is 
struck  by  the  number  of  monoliths  (fig.  165)  placed  erect  at 
regular  intervals,  reminding  us  of  those  of  Stonehenge '  in 
the  cyclopean  size  of  the  stones  employed,0  and  in  the  pro- 
fusion of  sculptures,  ornaments,  bas-reliefs,  and  statues  of 
colossal  size,  of  which  eight  have  thus  far  been  discovered. 


FIG  165. — Monoliths  at  Tiaguanaco. 

The  ears  of  the  representations  of  human  heads  are  not 
distorted,  which  is  yet  another  proof  that  they  are  of  earlier 
date  than  the  Incas,  for  we  know  that  it  was  the  Inca  Roca 
who  introduced  the  custom  of  wearing  heavy  earrings ; 
hence  the  name  of  Ore/ones,  given  by  the  Spanish  to  the 
natives. 

The  stones  employed  are  red   freestone,  a  slate-colored 

1  Their  height  is  very  unequal  ;  the  highest  measures  fourteen  feet.  The 
monoliths  of  Stonehenge  vary  from  sixteen  to  twenty-one  feet. 

*  Acosta,  one  of  the  first  Spaniards  who  entered  Tiaguanaco,  speaks  of  stones 
thirty-eight  feet  long,  eighteen  broad,  and  six  thick. 


402  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

trachyte,  and  a  very  hard  and  very  dark  basalt.1  All  these 
stones  are  admirably  polished,  and  they  are  so  perfectly  cut 
that  we  may  compare  their  workmanship  with  that  of  the 
granites  of  the  Egyptian  pylones.  It  is  not  easy  to  under- 
stand how  the  workmen  could  have  executed  a  task  so  dif- 
ficult,8 when  iron  was  unknown  to  them,  and  they  had  to  use 
implements  either  of  silex,  or  a  rather  soft  alloy  of  bronze 
(champi}.  The  stones  are  laid  one  upon  the  other  with  such 
precision  that  the  joints  are  hardly  visible,  and  secured  with 
bronze  cramps.  The  ruins  of  the  monuments  have  served 
to  build  all  the  churches  of  the  surrounding  valleys,  and  the 
sculptures  of  Tiaguanaco  are  found  at  a  distance  of  more 
than  twenty  leagues,  even  in  the  walls  of  the  cathedral  of 
La  Paz,  the  present  capital  of  Bolivia. 

Wood  was  not  used  in  these  buildings  ;  at  this  height 
trees  could  not  grow,  and  a  little  stunted  brushwood,  or  the 
dried  dung  of  llamas,  was  the  only  fuel  to  be  had. 

We  must  now  rapidly  describe  the  ruins  of  Tiaguanaco  ; 
and  we  will  keep  as  data  for  reference,  the  names  which  have 
been  given  to  the  different  buildings  ;  but,  as  Desjardins 
justly  remarks,  the  popular  designations  are  any  thing  but 
suitable  to  the  buildings  to  which  they  have  been  applied. 

The  fortress3  is  a  mound  of  rectangular  form,  which  rises 
to  a  height  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  successive  ter- 
races, one  behind  the  other  and  upheld  by  massive  walls. 
This  is  again  the  same  arrangement  that  we  meet  with  in 
Mexico  arid  Yucatan.  The  platform  was  covered  with  build- 
ings, of  which  the  foundations  are  now  scarcely  visible.  No- 

1  There  are  large  cliffs  of  red  freestone  five  leagues  from  the  ruins,  and  beds 
of  trachyte  and  basalt  at  Yunguyo.  The  transport  through  the  mountains 
must  have  added  to  the  immense  difficulties  which  the  builders  had  to  contend 
with. 

"  "  In  no  part  of  the  world  have  I  seen  stones  cut  with  such  mathematical 
precision  and  admirable  skill  as  in  Peru  ;  and  in  no  part  of  Peru  are  there  any 
to  surpass  those  which  are  scattered  over  the  plains  of  Tiahuanuco."  Squier, 
"  Peru,"  p.  279. 

'Garcilasso  tells  us  that  the  town  of  Tiaguanaco  was  remarkable  for  its 
large  and  extraordinary  buildings.  He  speaks  of  the  finest  building  of  the 
country  as  a  mountain  of  prodigious  height  made  by  the  hand  of  man. 


PERU.  403 

where  have  the  tapadas  shown  a  wilder  zeal,  excited  doubt- 
less by  the  tradition,  which  no  Indian  would  think  of  doubt- 
ing, that  a  subterranean  communication  exists  between  this 
fortress  and  the  town  of  Cuzco,  more  than  one  hundred 
and  sixty  leagues  off. 

It  is  not  likely  that  this  pyramid,  in  spite  of  the  name  the 
natives  have  given  to  it,  ever  served  a  defensive  purpose. 
The  fortresses  of  Peru  have  always  been  built  upon  places 
indicated  by  the  situation  itself.  Many  archaeologists  look 
upon  it  as  a  temple  and  think  it  was  the  scene  of  the 
human  sacrifices  which  are  said  to  have  been  offered  up  be- 
fore the  domination  of  the  Incas.  This  is  a  mere  guess, 
which,  in  our  present  state  of  ignorance,  we  are  able  neither 
to  accept  nor  to  reject. 

North  of  the  fortress  rises  the  temple,  the  most  ancient 
monument  of  the  town.  It  forms  a  parallelogram  of  four 
hundred  and  forty-five  feet  by  three  hundred  and  eighty- 
eight,  and  was  surrounded  by  a  vast  enclosure  built  of 
blocks  of  trachyte,  which  measure  from  eight  to  ten  feet 
long,  by  from  two  to  four  wide,  and  are  from  twenty  to 
thirty  inches  thick.  They  are  of  irregular  form  and  less 
carefully  prepared  than  the  stones  employed  in  the  other 
buildings  of  Tiaguanaco. 

The  Hall  of  Justice  is  now  nothing  but  a  heap  of  stones  ; 
long  and  patient  study  would  be  required  to  make  out  the 
exactitude  of  the  account  written  by  Cieca  de  Leon  three 
centuries  ago,  or  even  of  the  plan  made  by  D'Orbigny,  in 
1833.  According  to  all  appearances  the  building  was  a 
parallelogram  measuring  four  hundred  and  twenty  feet  by 
three  hundred  and  seventy.  Walls  surrounded  a  platform  of 
earth,  leaving  in  the  centre  a  trench  which  reached  down  to 
the  level  of  the  soil.  We  are  ignorant  of  the  purpose  of 
this  trench,  the  walls  of  which  were  formed  by  large  stones, 
said  by  Cieca  de  Leon,  to  be  thirty  feet  long  by  fifteen  wide, 
and  six  high,  while  Squier  assigns  them  smaller  dimen- 
sions. A  door-way  still  standing  gives  access  to  it,  with 
jambs  made  of  a  single  stone,  and  a  frieze  ornamented  with 
human  faces  in  relief. 


404 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


East  of  the  Hall  of  Justice  we  see  a  mound  eight  or  ten 
feet  high,  forming  a  perfect  square  of  one  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-five feet  each  way.  In  the  centre  rose  a  building  fifty 
feet  square,  to  which  Squier  has  given  the  name  of  the  Sanc- 
tuary. It  was  reached  by  flights  of  very  narrow  steps,  and 
it  is  easy  to  make  out  a  kind  of  Naos,  which  was  probably  a 
goal  of  pilgrims.  Tiagaunaco  had,  in  fact,  a  great  renown 
for  sanctity,  inferior  in  nothing  to  that  of  Pachacamac,  and 


FlG.  166. — Doorway  at  Tiaguanaco. 

at  certain  holidays  men  flocked  to  it  from  all  parts  of  Peru. 
Several  monolithic  door-ways,  similar  to  those  we  have  de- 
scribed, tower  above  the  ruins  surrounding  them.  One  of 
them  is  probably  the  most  curious  monument  of  the  town. 
Imagine  a  block  of  trachyte  thirteen  feet  five  inches  long  by 
seven  feet  two  inches  high,1  surmounted  by  a  frieze  that 

1  This  door  is  four  feet  six  inches  high  by  two  feet   nine  inches  wide.     Des- 
jardins,  loc.  cit.,  p.  159,  gives  an  excellent  description  of  this  monument. 


PERU. 


405 


has  been  damaged  by  lightning;  and  then  four  series  of 
cartouches  bearing  human  figures  engraved  in  intaglio, 
some  unfinished,  and  in  the  centre  a  very  original  and  com- 
plicated mass  of  ornamentation  (fig.  167).  This  central  or- 


FIG.  167. — Central  portion  of  the  great  monolith  of  Tiaguanaco. 

uament  represents  a  Luman   face,  surrounded  by  bas-reliefs 
which  are  said  to  be  of  jaguars  and  condors.1     The  figures 

1  Angrand,  who  has  visited  Tiaguanaco,  calls  attention  to  its  resemblance, 
even  in  the  smallest  details,  to  the  monuments  of  Palenque,  Ococingo.  and 
Xochicalco. 


406  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

are  probably  symbolical ;  but  the  religion  of  the  ancient  in- 
habitants of  the  town  is  unknown  to  us,  so  that  we  cannot 
interpret  them.  In  the  western  face  are  five  niches,  two  of 
which  are  sunk  in  the  soil,  so  that  the  height  of  the  mono- 
lith has  still  to  be  determined. 

History  and  tradition  are  alike  mute  on  the  relations 
which  may  connect  the  builders  of  Tiaguanaco  with  the 
Qquichuas.  We  are  no  less  ignorant  of  those  which  existed 
between  the  former  and  the  Aymaras.  It  is  probable,  al- 
though we  cannot  positively  assert  it,  that  both  sprang 
from  Nahua  races,  and  that  they  came  from  the  north,  per- 
haps even  from  the  prolific  table-land  of  Anahuac.  One 
thing  we  think  certain  :  such  monuments  cannot  be  the 
remains  of  a  civilization  of  local  growth,  nor  can  a  race, 
unaided,  have  developed  from  its  own  genius  such  archi- 
tectural knowledge.  We  share  the  conclusion  of  Angrand, 
that  the  civilization  of  which  the  remaining  ruins  bear  the 
impress,  could  not  have  taken  its  rise  on  these  frozen 
table-lands.  Man  must  have  arrived  upon  them  sufficiently 
armed  for  the  struggle,  by  previous  experience  of  social 
life. 

Lake  Titicaca,  of  irregular  oval  form,  is  one  hundred  miles 
long  by  from  fifty  to  seventy  wide  ;  soundings  have  re- 
cently given  a  depth  of  1,710  feet,  while  the  altitude  of 
the  lake  is  about  12,000  feet  above  the  sea.1  Several 
islands  dot  its  surface,  the  most  important  of  which  is 
that  of  Titicaca,  with  rugged  rocks  and  irregular  shore- 
line. It  is  six  miles  long  by  three  or  four  wide.  Its 
name  comes  from  titi,  a  tiger,  and  caca,  rock  ;  according 
to  tradition,  before  the  arrival  of  man  the  island  was  in- 
habited by  a  tiger,  that  carried  on  its  head  a  magnificent 
ruby,  the  light  from  which  illuminated  the  whole  lake. 

This  was  the  sacred  island  of  the  ancient  Peruvians ; 
and,  according  to  a  legend  still  dear  to  the  inhabitants, 
it  was  here  that  the  sun  re-appeared  resplendent  after  a 
total  eclipse  which  had  lasted  for  several  days ;  here,  too, 

1  Wiener,  loc.  fit.,  p.  390. 


PERU.  407 

were  born  Manco-Capac  and  Oello,  the  children  of  the  sun, 
and  it  was  from  here  that  they  set  forth  to  direct  the 
great  destinies  of  their  people. 

The  island  is  covered  with  monuments,  the  pious  offerings 
of  the  Incas  to  the  manes  of  their  glorious  ancestors.  We 
mention  the  palace  of  the  Sun,  a  convent  of  priests  con- 
nected with  the  worship  of  that  god,  and  the  palace  of  the 
Incas.  On  disembarking  from  the  reed-boat  (balsa),  on  which 
every  traveller  has  to  trust  himself,  one  sees  successively  the 
ruins  of  three  porticos,  through  which  the  pilgrims  had  to 
pass;  the  Puma punco,  or  the  gate  of  the  puma,  where  they 
had  to  confess  their  sins  ;  the  Kent  i  punco  t  ornamented  with 
sculptures  representing  a  bird  called  Kenti,  where  other 
ceremonies  had  to  be  gone  through  with ;  and,  lastly,  the 
Pillco  punco,  or  the  door  of  hope.  After  having  passed 
through  it,  the  faithful  worshipper  was  allowed  to  approach 
the  sacred  rock,  where  the  sun  had  risen,  lighting  up  the 
horizon  with  its  fires.1  This  rock  was  entirely  covered 
with  magnificent  tapestries,  ornamented  with  sheets  of  gold 
and  silver ;  and  in  all  the  hollows  were  deposited  the  most 
costly  offerings.  None  except  the  priests  might  approach 
this  venerated  spot ;  pilgrims  contemplated  it  from  afar,  re- 
maining in  a  large  enclosure,  in  which  can  still  be  seen  the 
foundations  of  two  sanctuaries  dedicated  to  two  inferior 
gods,  symbolized  by  thunder  and  lightning. 

The  temple  formed  a  parallelogram  of  165  feet  by  30,  and 
rose  from  a  rock  situated  at  the  extremity  of  the  island. 
There  has  been  much  discussion  as  to  its  site  ;  we  accept  the 
opinion  of  Squier  (/.  c.,  p.  369),  which  appears  to  us  the  best 
founded. 

It  was  reached  by  steps  cut  in  the  rock.  The  walls 
were  of  stones,  imbedded  in  a  very  hard  clay  and  faced 
with  a  coating  of  stucco.  Inside  we  notice  a  whole  series 
of  the  niches  so  characteristic  of  Peruvian  monuments.  The 
principal  facade  was  pierced  with  five  doors,  and  with  two 

1  We  take  this  account  from  Padre  Ramos,  who  wrote  a  short  time  after  the 
conquest. 


408  P RE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

windows  placed  at  equal  distances  between  each  two  doors. 
On  the  opposite  side,  a  single  door  opened  upon  a  series  of 
terraces,  one  behind  the  other ;  and  by  crossing  them  and 
going  down  some  skilfully  arranged  steps,  two  smaller  tem- 
ples in  the  same  style  were  reached.  They  were  erected,  as 
were  most  of  the  buildings  of  the  island,  by  Tupac-Yupanqui, 
the  eleventh  Inca.  They  are  neither  so  well  built,  nor  so 
loaded  with  ornament,  as  are  those  of  Tiaguanaco.  In  them 
we  see  art  in  its  decadence,  an  almost  certain  indication  of  a 
declining  culture.  If  we  believe  the  Conquistadores,  the 
wealth  of  the  temples  was  immense  ;  but  the  priests  hastened 
on  the  arrival  of  the  Spanish,  to  throw  into  the  lake  all  their 
gold  and  silver  vases,  to  prevent  their  becoming  the  prey  of 
the  conqueror. 

El  palacio  del  Inca  occupies  a  magnificent  position,  com- 
manding a  view  of  the  lake  and  the  snow-capped  mountains 
overlooking  it.  It  forms  a  rectangle  of  somewhat  moderate 
dimensions,  only  fifty-one  feet  by  forty-four,  and  two  stories 
not  communicating  with  each  other  can  be  made  out,  each 
including  a  series  of  twelve  rooms,  arranged  according  to 
totally  different  plans.1  The  internal  and  external  walls,  like 
those  of  the  temple,  were  coated  with  fairly  hard  stucco, 
painted  yellow ;  the  jarnbs  of  the  doors,  and  the  niches, 
which  were  the  only  ornamentation,  stood  out  in  red ;  the 
roof,  of  pyramidal  form,  was  made  of  stones  overhanging  one 
another.  The  great  scarcity  of  wood  doubtless  led  to  this 
mode  of  building,  which  must  have  presented  great  difficul- 
ties. 

Lastly,  we  mention  the  tambos,  where  the  pilgrims  lodged  ; 
the///tf,  or  fountain  of  the  Incas,  where  the  water  still  flows 
from  unknown  springs  through  subterranean  conduits ;  the 
Clungana,  or  labyrinth,  with  its  vaulted  caves,  narrow  open- 
ings, numerous  corridors  and  tiny  rooms.  We  retain  the 
name  of  Chingana  for  these  ruins,  to  which  the  Spanish  had 
at  first  given  that  of  dispensa,  supposing  that  the  treasures 
of  the  temple  and  the  objects  used  in  worship  were  there 

1  Squier,  "  Peru,"  pp.  344,  345,  gives  the  plan  of  each  of  these  stories. 


PKRU.  409 

deposited.  Squier  looks  upon  them  as  the  aclakuasi,  which 
was  the  name  given  to  the  residence  of  the  virgins  of  the 
sun  :  all  these  suppositions  are  possible  ;  we  leave  them  to 
the  consideration  of  the  reader. 

The  island  of  Coati  was  about  six  miles  from  that  of  Titi- 
caca.  It  was  two  and  a  half  miles  long  by  three  fourths  of 
a  mile  wide,  and  played  a  part  in  the  religious  system  of  the 
Peruvians,  almost  as  important  as  the  island  of  Titicaca,  or 
as  that  dedicated  to  the  sun.  Coati  was  consecrated  to  the 
moon.  In  it  we  meet  again  with  the  gates  of  purification, 
where  took  place  the  same  religious  ceremonies  as  at  Titi- 
caca, and  the  tambos  set  aside  for  the  pilgrims ;  but  the 
most  remarkable  ruins  are  those  of  the  palace  of  the  mama- 
cunas,  or  virgins  dedicated  to  the  sun.  This  aclahuasi  occu- 
pied three  sides  of  a  vast  court ;  the  walls,  like  those  of  the 
other  buildings  of  the  Incas,  were  of  rough  stones,  im- 
bedded in  clay  and  covered  with  very  hard  cement.  On  the 
ground-floor  thirty-five  rooms  can  still  be  counted ;  one  of 
these,  which  was  approached  by  a  vaulted  corridor,  and  was 
the  only  one  in  which  the  walls  were  made  of  dressed  stones, 
was  probably  a  sacred  spot.  The  doors  were  surrounded  by 
niches,  which  were  the  only  ornamentation ;  for  nowhere  do 
we  find  sculptures  and  arabesques  such  as  are  so  numerous 
at  Tiaguanaco  and  Chimu.  One  story,  which  was  reached 
by  several  flights  of  steps,  rose  above  the  ground-floor;  and 
the  roof,  cut  by  several  pediments,  presents  a  certain  resem- 
blance to  the  Elizabethan  style  so  dear  to  the  English.  All 
the  rooms  communicated  with  each  other ;  so  that  here  we 
have  the  same  arrangement  as  in  the  pueblos  of  New  Mex- 
ico. On  the  first  story  two  large  halls  opened  on  the  prin- 
cipal fa$ade ;  each  had  the  inevitable  niche  ;  in  the  first  was 
placed  a  golden  statue  of  the  sun,  and  in  the  second  a  silver 
one  of  the  moon,  Lastly,  the  lake  was  reached  by  a  series 
of  terraces  and  steps,  a  good  deal  like  those  connected  with 
the  palace  of  the  Inca  on  the  island  of  Titicaca.  The  two 
buildings  date  from  the  same  period  ;  for  though  the  palace 
of  the  Virgins  was  erected  during  the  reign  of  Huayna- 


410  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Capac,  his  father,  Tupac-Yupanqui,  laid  the  foundations. 
On  the  west  of  the  palace  we  can  still  observe  ruins  of  a 
semicircular  court,  in  which  lived  the  sacred  llamas  and 
vicuflas.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  Mamacunas  to  weave  the 
wool  for  their  own  garments  and  for  those  of  the  Incas  and 
their  children. 

There  were  other  islands  on  the  lake,  but  we  will  content 
ourselves  with  mentioning  that  of  Soto,  to  which  the  Incas 
retired  in  times  of  anxiety,  to  seek  by  fasting  and  prayer 
the  protection  of  their  glorious  ancestors. 

Legends  relate  that,  when  Manco-Capac  and  Oello  left  the 
island  of  Titicaca,  the  sun  gave  to  them  a  golden  branch, 
and  instructed  them  to  walk  on  until  the  branch  should  sink 
into  the  earth.  It  was  at  Cuzco  that  the  marvel  took  place, 
and  the  Incas,  full  of  gratitude  to  their  father,  made  it  the 
capital  of  their  dominions.  The  town  rapidly  rose  to  great 
importance,  and  without  accepting  the  exaggerated  accounts 
of  certain  Spanish  writers,  who  bring  up  the  number  of  the 
inhabitants  to  two  hundred  thousand,1  it  is  evident  that  a 
numerous  and  obedient  population  was  indispensable  for  the 
construction  of  the  buildings,  whose  imposing  ruins  still 
astonish  the  traveller.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  how  men 
can  have  lived  at  an  altitude  of  1 1,380  feet,  on  a  sterile  soil, 
when  there  were  no  domestic  animals,  and  maize,  the  only 
cereal  with  which  they  were  acquainted,  could  only  ripen  in 
a  few  distant  valleys. 

The  town  rises  from  steep  slopes  ;  everywhere  rocks  had 
to  be  levelled,  terraces  erected,  and  earth  upheld  by  walls, 
which  remind  us  of  the  cyclopean  structures  of  Greece 
or  Syria.  At  Tiaguanaco  we  found  the  walls  kept  in  posi- 
tion by  bronze  cramps  ;  in  the  island  of  Titicaca  these  walls 
are  sometimes  of  adobes  dried  in  the  sun,  sometimes  of 
stones  cemented  with  clay  ;  at  Cuzco  they  are  of  extremely 
hard  rocks,  such  as  diorite,  porphyry,  and  great  blocks  of 

lThe  number  of  inhabitants  of  the  whole  province  of  which  Cuzco  is  the 
capital  does  not  now  exceed  three  hundred  thousand  souls.  Such  is  the  sterility 
of  the  soil  and  the  struggle  for  existence,  that  this  number  is  not  at  all  likely 
to  increase. 


PER  U.  411 

brown  trachyte,  carried  by  main  force,  without  the  help  of 
paths,  from  the  quarries  of  Anduhaylillas,  twenty-two 
miles  off.  How  the  stones  were  transported  to  Cuzco  is  not 
easy  to  say;  but  as  the  Incas  had  no  beasts  of  draught 
it  must  have  been  done  through  the  direct  application  of 
human  force.1  These  blocks  were  carefully  squared  and 
then  joined  together  by  means  of  a  mortise  about  one  foot 
deep  by  one  and  a  half  feet  in  diameter,  into  which  fitted  a 
tenon  of  nearly  the  same  size,  hewn  out  of  the  upper  block. 
The  walls  were  kept  in  place  by  their  own  weight  alone,  for 
Squier,  (/.  c.,  p.  435)  after  a  careful  examination,  declares 
that  no  cement  was  used  ;  he  adds  that  all  modern  masonry, 
whether  executed  in  Europe  or  in  America,  is  inferior,  when 
compared  with  that  of  the  ancient  capital  of  the  Incas.  In 
certain  characteristics  this  architecture  recalls  that  of  the 
Egyptians  ;  but  this  resemblance,  curious  as  it  may  appear, 
does  not  allow  any  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  it ;  for  the 
primitive  ideas  of  men  are  of  spontaneous  origin  and  develop 
progressively,  according  to  a  universal  law  which  can  be 
traced  everywhere. 

The  valley  is  overlooked  by  the  Sacsahuaman 3  built  on  a 
perpendicular  rock  which  juts  out  like  a  spear  between  two 
streams,  the  Huatenay  and  the  Rodadero.  From  the  side 
next  the  town  ascent  was  impossible  and  a  path  was  cut  out 
on  the  opposite  side,  along  the  Rodadero,  forming  the  sole 
mode  of  access  to  this  fortress,  which,  with  its  triple  enclos- 
ure of  huge  irregular  blocks,3  its  terraces,  and  its  para- 
pets, its  projecting  and  re-entering  angles  resembling 
those  of  modern  bastions,  was  absolutely  impregnable 

1  Squier  :   "  Peru,"  p.  419. 

2Comte  de  Sartiges  :  Rev.  des  Deux  Monde  s,  1851.  Squier:  "Peru," 
p.  468.  Historians  differ  as  to  the  erection  of  the  Sacsahuaman.  Some 
attribute  it  to  Yupanqui,  others  to  Huayna-Capac,  the  father  of  Atahualpa  and 
Huascar.  It  is  probable  that  it  took  many  years  to  huild  it  and  that  several 
generations  of  workmen  were  employed. 

'The  total  length  of  the  walls  is  one  thousand  eight  hundred  feet  ;  the  pres- 
ent height  of  the  first  enclosure  is  twenty-seven  feet,  that  of  the  second  seven- 
teen, and  that  of  the  third,  fourteen. 


4' 2  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA.. 

before  the  invention  of  artillery.  Garcilasso  l  places  this 
work  on  an  equality  with  all  that  was  most  celebrated 
in  antiquity,  for  its  execution  appeared  to  him  impossible, 
even  with  all  the  instruments  and  machines  known  in 
Zurope.  Many  persons,  therefore,  he  tells  us,  believed  it  to 
have  been  made  by  enchantment,  on  account  of  the  famili- 
arity of  the  Indians  with  demons,  and  the  Spanish  author 
owns  that  he  was  not  indisposed  to  come  to  the  same  con- 
clusion. Though  different  in  kind  Squier's  enthusiasm  was 
no  less  great ;  he  does  not  hesitate  to  compare  the  Sacsahua- 
man  with  the  pyramids,  Stonehenge,  and  the  Coliseum.  Like 
those  glorious  monuments,  he  adds,  it  ought  to  defy  time 
and  remain  an  eternal  witness  to  the  power  of  man. 

Three  openings  in  the  form  of  an  elongated  trapezium 
give  access  to  the  outer  enclosure,  the  Tiupuncu,  or  gate  of 
sand,  the  Acahuanapuncu,  and  the  Viracochapuncu?  after  the 
name  of  the  guardian  god  of  the  town.  Hugh  blocks  of 
stone  were  made  ready  for  closing  these  openings  at  the  first 
appearance  of  danger.  In  the  centre  of  the  citadel  still  re- 
main several  minor  strongholds,  and  among  them  a  round 
tower,  the  Muyuc-Marca,  in  which  were  placed  the  treasures 
of  the  Incas,  and  from  which,  by  one  of  those  freaks  of 
fortune  of  which  history  presents  so  many  curious  examples, 
their  last  descendant  was  to  fling  himself  down,  after 
the  final  failure  of  an  insurrection  which  cost  Juan  Pizarro 
his  life  and  brought  the  Spaniards  to  the  brink  of  destruc- 
tion.* 

If  the  fortifications  of  the  citadel  bear  witness  to  the  skill 
of  the  architects,  the  diverting  of  water  of  the  Rodadero,  by 

1  "  Hist,  des  Incas,  Rois  du  Perou,"  French  translation,  vol.  I.,  p.  268. 

"The  word  Viracocha  is  still  a  title  of  honor  amongst  modern  Peruvians. 
Viracocha-tatai,  our  father  Viracocha,  is  the  salutation  with  which  Europeans 
are  always  greeted. 

3  Manco-Capac  II.  was  recognized  by  Pizarro  as  Inca  after  the  execution  of 
Atahualpa.  Another  legend,  dear  to  the  Indians,  gives  a  different  account  of 
his  death.  According  to  it,  Manco-Capac,  after  the  final  submission  of  Cuzco, 
retired  to  the  Andes,  where  he  continued  to  struggle  against  the  Spanish,  and 
where  he  was  assassinated  by  those  who  had  been  unable  to  conquer  him.  See 
Prescott  :  "Conquest  of  Peru,"  bk.  III.,  ch.  X. 


PERU.  413 

means  of  acequias  or  canals  of  remarkable  execution,  testi- 
fies still  more  to  that  of  the  engineers.  We  give  a  drawing 
of  one  of  those  aqueducts  (fig.  168),  which,  like  that  of  the 
portico  of  Kabal  (fig.  134),  recalls  the  magnificent  works  of 
the  Romans,  which  are  certainly  one  of  the  glories  of  our 
ancient  civilization. 

A  hill  near  the  Sacsahuaman  is  covered  with  granite 
blocks,  richly  sculptured  and  converted  into  seats ;  galleries 
ornamented  with  steps,  terraces,  and  niches.  The  Incas 
omitted  nothing  which  could  add  to  the  splendor  of  their 
capital. 

The  temple  of  the  sun,  the  wealth  of  which  is  still  pro- 
verbial, was  situated  on  an  eminence  eighty  feet  above  the 
Huatenay.  The  river  was  reached  by  a  series  of  terraces. 
There  stretched  the  celebrated  gardens,  where,  according  to 
the  account  of  Spanish  chroniclers,  the  animals,  insects,  and 
the  very  trees  were  of  gold  and  silver.  The  whole  of  the 
quarter  where  the  temple  was,  bore  the  characteristic  name 
of  Coricancha,  the  town  of  gold. 

The  temple,  now  converted  into  a  Dominican  convent, 
occupies  one  side  of  a  vast  court,  which  preserves  the  name 
of  Intipampa,  the  field  of  the  sun.  The  inner  aud  outer 
walls  it  is  alleged  were  covered  with  sheets  of  gold.  This 
last  fact  may  be  true,  for  Squier  relates  having  seen,  in  vari- 
ous houses  in  Cuzco,  sheets  of  gold  preserved  as  relics  which 
came  from  the  temple  of  the  Sun.  These  plaques,  he  tells 
us,  were  scarcely  as  thick  as  a  sheet  of  paper. 

Above  the  altar,  which  faced  east,  was  a  colossal  repre- 
sentation of  the  sun,  also  in  gold,  which,  after  the  conquest, 
became  the  booty  of  a  certain  Mancio  Serra  de  Leguicano, 
a  reckless  gambler,  who  lost  it  on  a  single  throw  of  the  dice. 

All  around  were  laid  the  dried  bodies  of  the  Incas,  who 
seemed  to  be  rendering  a  last  homage  to  their  father. 

The  court  was  surrounded  with  sanctuaries  dedicated  to 
inferior  divinities,  such  as  the  moon,  the  stars,  thunder, 
lightning,  and  the  rainbow,  visible  and  active  manifestations 
of  that  Being,  superior  to  all,  who  was  the  essence  and 


4H  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

supreme  cause  of  every  thing.  In  the  centre  a  fountain 
hewn  out  of  a  stone  of  considerable  size,  still  gives  the 
monks  the  water  they  need.  This  stone,  like  those  used  in 
making  the  walls  of  the  temple,  was  also  covered  with  sheets 
of  gold,  and  Garcilasso  relates  that  he  himself  saw  the  water 
flow  into  it  through  pipes  also  of  gold. 

The  AclaJiuasi  was  only  separated  from  the  temple  by  a 
large   building  which  served  as  a  lodging  for  the  priests. 


FIG.  168. — Aqueduct  on  the  Rodadero. 

The  walls  are  still  standing,  for  a  length  of  750  feet,  their 
height  varying  from  20  to  25.  .They  bear  witness  to  the 
splendor  of  the  building,  to  which  the  daughters  of  the  Incas 
were  sent  at  a  most  tender  age,  and  where  they  were  sub- 
mitted to  a  rigorous  discipline. 

Nor  could  the  Incas  neglect  their  private  dwellings,  in  the 
town  in  which  they  lived.  Each  Inca  erected  a  palace  at  his 
ascension,  and  at  his  death  this  palace  became  the  residence 
of  his  son.  That  of  Huayna-Capac,  the  most  illustrious  of 


PERU.  415 

his  race,  was  no  less  than  800  feet  long;  all  its  other  dimen- 
sions were  on  a  similar  scale,  and  the  Jesuits  have  been  able 
to  build  a  church,  the  viceroys  a  prison  and  a  barrack,  in  these 
structures  of  impregnable  solidity.  The  palace  of  Atahualpa 
was  of  adobes ;  and  the  room  is  still  shown  in  which  he  was 
imprisoned,  and  which  he  had  to  fill  with  gold  for  his  ran- 
som. Opposite  to  the  palace  of  the  Inca  Roca  were  the 
schools,  Yachahuasi,  which  he  had  founded,  and  which  he 
took  pleasure  in  superintending ;  there  the  Arnautes,  literally 
the.w/.ft'  men,  taught  the  great  deeds  of  the  Incas,  and  pre- 
served the  legends  relating  to  them.  Interlaced  serpents 
were  sculptured  upon  the  door  of  the  palace  of  Huayna- 
Capac,  and  they  are  also  met  with  on  the  walls  of  Yachahu- 
asi,  and  of  several  of  the  other  buildings  of  Cuzco.  These 
sculptures,  which  are  exceptional  among  the  Inca  buildings, 
have  evidently  a  mythological  signification  which  evades  us. 
In  other  places  hieroglyphics  are  supposed  to  exist,  which 
have  been  compared  to  those  of  Mexico  or  Brazil ;  but  all 
relating  to  them  is  the  boldest  guesswork. 

The  Incas  appear  to  have  taken  extreme  precaution 
against  dangers  unknown  to  us.  Were  these  dangers  the 
revolts  of  their  own  subjects,  or  were  they  the  incursions  of 
the  ferocious  Chinchas,  who  lived  in  the  impenetrable  forests 
watered  by  the  Amazon  and  its  tributaries  ?  We  cannot 
tell ;  but  it  is  certain  that  important  fortresses  rise  from 
many  points  in  Peru  ;  besides  the  Sacsahuaman,  of  which  we 
have  just  spoken,  we  may  mention  Ollantay-Tambo,  Pisac, 
Piquillacta,  and  Choccequirao. 

The  Ucayali,1  one  of  the  branches  of  the  Amazon,  flows 
across  the  fertile  valley  of  Yucay,  between  steep  rocks,  over- 
looked by  the  distant  lofty  snow-laden  summits  of  the  Andes. 
These  rocks  bear  witness  to  the  work  and  the  energy  of 
man  ;  for  on  every  side,  even  on  points  apparently  inacces- 
sible, and  at  heights  that  the  condors  alone  would  appear 
to  have  been  able  to  reach,  we  see  niches,  caves  artificially 

1  This  river  successively  bears  the  names  of  Vilcamayo,  Urubamba,  and 
Yucay. 


410 


PKE-HIS  TOKJ  C  A  M  ERIC  A . 


enlarged,  mausoleums  supported  on  pillars  crowned  by  a 
lintel,  and  sculptures.  Among  these  sculptures  is  a  puma 
sucking  her  cub. 

Ollantay-Tambo,  fifteen  leagues  north  of  Cuzco,  was  in- 
tended to  defend  the  valley  of  Yucay,  and  was  crowned  by 
lofty  towers,  now  almost  entirely  ruined.1  Inside  are  heaps 
of  huge  blocks  of  red  porphyry,  which  enable  us  to  form  an 
idea  of  the  importance  of  the  fortress.  Some  of  these  blocks 
bear  finely-executed  ornaments,  resembling  those  of  Tia- 


KIG.    169. — Wall  with   niches,  forming  part  of   the   fortification  of   Ollantay- 

Tambo. 

guanaco.  Walls  twenty-five  feet  high,  with  battlements  like 
those  of  the  strong  castles  rising  from  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine,  cover  the  sides  of  the  mountain,  and  stretch  away  in 
zigzags  to  precipices,  which  form  an  insuperable  barrier. 

On  one  of  the  perpendicular  rocks,  more  than  nine  hun- 
dred feet  high,  are  seen  the  ruins  of  a  little  building,  with  a 
door  opening  on  to  the  brink  of  the  precipice.  The  Spanish 

1  "  Cie?a  de  Leon,"  chap.  XCIV.  Garcilasso  :  "  Comm.  Reales,"  book  V., 
chap.  XXVII.  Markham  :  "  Cuzco  and  Lima."  Squier  :  "  Peru,"  p.  482. 


PERU.  417 

gave  to  it  the  name  of  la  horca  del  hombre,  and,  according  to 
legend,  criminals  were  taken  to  it  and  flung  into  the  abyss. 
A  little  farther  off  is  the  horca  de  mujer,  where  faithless 
wives  had  to  undergo  the  same  punishment. 

We  will  not  leave  the  valley  of  Yucay  without  speaking 
of  a  round  tower  situated  on  an  isolated  rock  and  made  of 
rough  stones,  faced  with  a  coating  of  stucco.  Inside  are 
niches,  and  outside  is  a  sculpture,  in  which  an  unskilful  artist 
has  endeavored  to  represent  a  serpent.  Above  the  door, 
and  simulating  windows,  we  meet  again  with  the  Egyptian 
tau  that  we  have  already  seen  at  Palenque.  These  orna- 
ments, and  the  carefulness  with  which  the  building  is  made, 
have  led  to  the  belief  that  this  tower  was  not  a  post  of  ob- 
servation or  defence,  but  more  likely  a  temple.  The  pecul- 
iar veneration  of  the  ancient  Peruvians  for  isolated  rocks 
justifies  this  idea.  The  Indians  of  to-day  have  inherited  the 
superstition  of  their  predecessors  ;  and  none  of  them  would 
dare  to  pass  the  tower  of  Calca  without  bowing  profoundly 
to  it,  throwing  down  a  stone,  and  muttering  an  unintelligible 
invocation. 

The  valley  of  Pauca-Tambo  is  parallel  with  that  of  Yucay, 
from  which  it  is  separated  by  the  chain  of  the  Andes.  It 
was  protected  by  the  vast  fortified  enclosure  of  Pisac.  All 
the  declivities  which  could  aid  in  ascent  are  crowned  with 
towers;  all  the  inequalities  of  the  rock  are  filled  in  and  faced 
with  slabs,  covered  with  very  hard  and  highly  polished 
stucco,  impossible  to  climb  over ;  every  strategic  point  is  de- 
fended by  works,  unsurpassed  by  any  thing  in  modern 
science.  These  fortifications  stretch  for  considerable  dis- 
tances, and  form,  if  we  may  so  express  it,  a  vast  intrenched 
camp,  in  which  whole  tribes  could  live  protected  from  at- 
tack, and  devote  themselves  in  peace  to  their  agricultural 
occupations. 

We  must  not  omit  to  mention  some  very  curious  monu- 
ments, to  which  the  name  of  inliliuatana  1  has  been  given. 

1  Inti  signifies  sun  ;  huatana,  the  point  where  a  thing  is  fixed  ;  so  that  Inti- 
liuatana  signifies,  literally,  the  point  where  the  sun  is  fixed, 


418 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA, 


These  are  isolated  rocks,  the  summit  of  which  has  been  com- 
pletely levelled,  and  which  are  surmounted  by  a  little  col- 
umn in  the  form  of  a  truncated  cone.  These  intihuatana 
are  met  with  in  all  the  provinces  of  Peru.  Squier  mentions 
several  in  the  valley  of  Pisco  ;  one  overlooking  the  little 
town  of  Ollantay-Tambo,  and  another  at  the  foot  of  the 
terrace  of  Colcompata  at  Cuzco.  It  is  very  probable  that 
one  of  these  intihuatanas  rose  before  the  temple  of  the  sun, 
and  traces  of  another  can  still  be  seen  in  front  of  the  temple 
of  the  island  of  Titicaca.  Their  purpose  is  still  very  uncer- 
tain. 


FIG.  170. — The  Intihuatana  of  Pisac. 

That  of  Pisac  is  one  of  the  best  preserved,  doubtless  on 
account  of  its  nearly  inaccessible  position  (fig.  170).  It  is 
eleven  inches  in  diameter  at  its  base  and  nine  at  its  summit ; 
it  is  sixteen  inches  high,  and  it  is  said  that  but  a  few  years 
ago  it  was  surrounded  by  a  champi*  collar,  which,  with  so 
many  other  interesting  relics,  has  become  the  booty  of  tapa- 
das.  The  whole  rock  is  surrounded  with  walls,  in  the  shape 
of  the  letter  D,  'and  made  of  squared  stones,  perfectly 
polished,  and  hewn  in  such  a  manner  as  to  accommodate 
themselves  to  every  inequality  of  rock. 

1  Champi  is  the  name  for  Peruvian  bronze.     Squier  :   "  Peru,"  p.  525. 


PERU.  419 

Various  guesses  have  been  hazarded  as  to  the  purpose  of 
the  intihuatanas.  The  most  plausible,  is  undoubtedly  that 
representing  them  to  be  gnomons,  used  for  measuring  the 
height  of  the  sun. 

The  fortress  of  Piquillacta  was  situated  on  the  south  of 
the  possessions  of  the  first  Incas,  not  far  from  the  quarries 
which  supplied  the  stone  for  the  buildings  of  Cuzco.  A 
wall  seven  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long  by  thirty  six  feet  wide 
at  the  base,  and  thirty-four  feet  high,  is  still  standing  to 
mark  its  site. 

The  jambs  of  the  two  entrances  are  of  dressed  stone,  the 
other  parts  of  rubble-stone,  set  in  clay.  Near  Piquillacta 
was  the  ancient  town  of  Muyna,  where  the  Inca  Yahuar- 
Huacac  took  refuge  in  his  terror  at  an  invasion  of  the  Chin- 
chas,1  and  where  his  son  Viracocha  compelled  him  to  reside, 
after  having  conquered  the  rebels  by  his  courage  and  bound 
his  brow  with  the  royal  llautu.8 

On  the  banks  of  the  Apurimac,  which  would  appear  to  be 
the  principal  branch  of  the  Amazon,  on  the  crest  of  the  but- 
tress of  a  glacier  surrounded  by  precipices,  rose  the  fortress 
of  Choccequirao,  its  name,  meaning  precious  cradle,  pointing 
out  its  purpose,  which  was  to  serve  as  the  residence  of  the 
heirs  to  the  crown  of  the  Incas.  Later,  this  stronghold  was 
the  refuge  of  the  last  survivors  of  the  race  of  Manco- 
Capac. 

Nothing  could  equal  the  wild  grandeur  of  these  places.' 
We  are  astonished  at  finding  the  industry  of  man  gaining  a 
footing  on  the  rocks  where  the  condor  had  built  its  eyrie. 
The  first  ruins  to  meet  the  eye  of  the  traveller  are  those  of 
the  outer  circuit  of  defence.  Angrand  has  suggested  that 

1  Garcilasso,  /.  c.,  vol.  I. 

"  The  llautu  was  a  bandage  which  passed  three  or  four  times  round  the  head, 
and  was  ornamented  with  a  fringe  falling  over  the  eyes.  It  was  black  for  the 
members  of  the  Inca's  family,  yellow  for  his  direct  descendants,  and  the  Inca 
alone  had  the  right  of  wearing  a  red  llautu.  He  al>o  wore  as  insignia  the 
Masca-faycha,  or  rid  aigrette,  and  the  capac-ongo,  or  royal  mantle. 

'  Desjardins  :  "  Le  Perou  avant  la  Conquete  Espagnole,"  p.  138  et  seq.  The 
Comte  de  Sartiges  in  1834,  and  Angrand,  1847,  are  the  only  Frenchmen  who 
have  visited  Choccequirao,  and  it  is  from  them  we  take  these  details. 


420  rRE-ttlSTORIC  AMERICA. 

the  buildings  next  seen  served  as  a  prison,  as  he  had  noticed 
that  the  doors  were  closed  with  stones  of  enormous  weight. 
A  hundred  and  fifty-three  yards  lower,  following  the  inclina- 
tion of  the  crest,  we  come  to  the  palace  and  to  the  bath-room, 
in  which  we  can  still  see  the  site  of  the  bath,  which  must 
have  been  in  gold,  as  were  all  the  vessels  and  utensils  in  use 
amongst  the  Incas.  Farther  on  are  two  buildings  which, 
according  to  Angrand,  were:  the  one  a  banqueting-hall, 
about  forty-five  yards  long  by  thirteen  wide,  with  windows 
resembling  those  of  Egyptian  monuments ;  the  other,  a 
menagerie.  In  the  walls  of  the  menageries  are  found  pro- 
jecting stone  rings,  to  which  were  chained  ferocious  animals 
sent  to  the  Incas  from  all  parts  of  their  dominions. 

The  palace  includes  three  groups  of  rectangular  buildings, 
two  of  them  about  eleven  yards  broad  by  sixteen  and  a  half 
long;  the  third,  eight  and  a  half  yards  by  sixteen  and  a  half ; 
the  two  first  consisting  of  a  ground-floor  and  one  upper  story. 
They  are  divided  lengthways  by  an  internal  wall,  which 
forms  two  elongated  chambers  on  each  story.  The  third 
building  had  only  a  ground-floor,  on  a  level  with  the  upper 
story  of  the  other  two,  the  terrace  crowning  it  giving  access 
to  them. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  palace,  at  a  considerable  eleva- 
tion, is  a  regular  fortress,  which  commands  the  entrance,  and 
leaves  no  outlet  but  four  openings  made  in  the  walls  on  the 
summit  of  the  crest ;  beyond  these  four  doors  are  ruins, 
probably  those  of  a  temple. 

We  might  multiply  such  descriptions,  for  all  over  the  vast 
country  of  the  Incas  we  meet  with  imposing  buildings, 
often  elevated  at  inaccessible  heights.  Do  the  Indians  know 
of  other  paths  than  those  that  the  few  travellers  of  to-day 
dare  attempt  ?  This  is  a  point  that  remains  doubtful ; 
but  even  if  practicable  routes  should  be  discovered,  we  shall 
still  be  confronted  with  difficulties  apparently  insurmount- 
able, though  they  do  not  seem  to  have  at  all  baffled  the 
ancient  inhabitants  of  the  country. 

More  useful  works  have  been  preserved  as  witnesses  to  the 


PERU.  421 

government  of  the  Incas.  Roads  intersected  the  country 
at  a  time  when  there  were  none  in  Europe.  Two  of  these 
roads  went  from  north  to  south,  from  Quito  toward  Cuzco ; 
one,  for  a  distance  of  1,200  miles,  crossing  the  sierras  and 
buttresses  of  the  Andes,  buried  beneath  perpetual  snow. 
This  was  the  road  followed  by  Almagro,  when  he  was  sent 
by  Pizarro,  to  bring  Chili  to  submission.  The  other,  finished 
by  the  Inca  Huayna-Capac,  followed  the  coast,  and  its 
length  was  1,600  miles.  These  roads,  which  Humboldt 
does  not  hesitate  to  compare  with  the  Roman  causeways, 
were  from  eighteen  to  twenty-six  feet  wide ;  they  were  pro- 
tected from  landslips  by  walls  of  earth,  were  paved  with 
blocks  of  stones  and  in  some  parts  covered  with  broken 
stone,  a  first  attempt  at  macadamizing.  They  always  fol- 
lowed the  straight  line,  crossing  the  steepest  slopes,  as  the 
Indians  who  do  not  know  how  to  turn  by  an  obstacle  still 
do.  The  ravines  and  marshes  were  crossed  by  embankments 
of  masonry ;  rocks  were  cut  through,  sometimes  for  a  con- 
siderable distance  ;  streams  and  torrents  were  spanned  by 
bridges  made  of  the  fibres  of  the  aloe,  creepers  or  reeds,  the 
lightness  of  which  was  not  incompatible  with  strength.  The 
mode  of  construction  of  these  bridges,  which  are  still  in  use, 
is  very  simple.  Two  ropes  of  maguey  or  agave  fibre  a  few 
inches  in  diameter,  pass  over  masonry  piers  and  are  firmly 
secured  at  a  distance  of  sixteen  to  twenty  feet  from  the  pier. 
Vertical  ropes  are  fastened  to  these  cables,  and  on  them 
rests  the  platform  of  the  bridge,  made  of  woven  reeds.  The 
Peruvians,  however,  knew  how  to  make  masonry  bridges. 
That  of  Rumichaca,  for  instance,  dates  from  the  time  of 
Huayna-Capac.1  Here  and  there,  where  vegetation  was 
possible,  the  road  was  planted  with  trees,  which  ensured 
shade  and  freshness,  and  in  the  mountains,  tambos,  where 
the  wearied  traveller  could  rest,  were  built  at  convenient 
distances. 

Such   is   the  account  given  by  Spanish    historians*  who 

1  Bollaert  :   "  Ant.  Ethn.  and  other  Researches,"  p.  90. 

1  We  mention  especially  Zurate,  "  Hist,  del  Descubrimiento  y  Conquista  del 


422  PRE-iriSTORIC  AMERICA. 

have,  however,  somewhat  exaggerated  the  importance  of 
these  works.  Recent  researches  have  established  the  truth. 
At  certain  points  of  the  route,  especially  in  the  most  diffi- 
cult parts,  the  road  was  not  cut,  the  rock  was  not  levelled, 
but  the  direction  to  be  followed  to  avoid  the  precipices  was 
merely  indicated  by  stakes.  In  declivities  steps  had  been 
made,  upheld  only  by  a  row  of  little  stones ;  these  are  not 
flights  of  steps  suitable  for  aiding  the  ascent,  but  merely  em- 
bankments to  prevent  landslips.  As  the  Peruvians  had  no 
beasts  of  burden,  journeys  were  made  on  foot,  and  freight 
was  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  men.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, these  paths,  defective  as  they  must  appear  to  us, 
met  all  the  needs  of  the  inhabitants. 

We  have  already  said  that  water,  so  precious  in  tropical 
climates,  was  carefully  collected  in  reservoirs  placed  in  ele- 
vated situations,  and  then  conducted,  by  masonry  acequias  or 
irrigation  canals  to  distances  often  of  many  miles.  "  I  have 
followed  them  for  days  together,  and  have  seen  them  wind- 
ing amidst  the  projections  of  hills,  curving  in  and  out  as 
the  topography  required ;  here  sustained  by  high  walls  of 
masonry,  there  cut  into  the  living  rock,  and  in  some  cases  con- 
ducted in  tunnels,  through  sharp  spurs  of  the  obstructing 
mountains.  Occasionally  they  were  carried  over  narrow  val- 
leys or  depressions  in  the  ground,  on  embankments  fifty  or 
sixty  feet  high ;  but  generally  they  were  deflected  around 
opposing  obstacles,  on  an  easy  and  uniform  descending 
grade"  (Squier:  "Peru,"  p.  218).  To  give  a  faint  idea  of 
what  these  works  were,  we  mention  the  valley  of  La  Nepafia, 
a  reservoir  made  by  means  of  a  dam  of  strongly  cemented 
pieces  of  rock,  shutting  in  two  deep  gorges.  This  reservoir 
was  three  fourths  of  a  mile  long  by  a  width  of  half  a  mile. 
The  walls  were  eighty  feet  thick  at  their  base,  and  could 
bear  the  greatest  pressure.  Wiener  also  mentions  a  remark- 
able hydraulic  work,  in  which  large  cisterns,  in  communica- 

Peru,"  Anvers,  1855,  book  I.,  ch.  XIII.  Consult  also  Cie9a  de  Leon  (ch. 
XXXVII.),  Garcilasso,  and  amongst  modern  writers,  Humboldt,  Rivero,  and 
Tschudi. 


PERU. 


423 


tion  with  each  other,  conducted  at  a  considerable  height  the 
water  of  the  Cerro  de  Pasco  to  the  Cerro  de  Sipa. 

Constructions  of  minor  importance,  but  nevertheless  of 
great  interest,  are  to  be  seen  at  Huanuco  Viejo,1  where  stood 
a  palace  of  the  Incas  (fig.  171),  and  where,  according  to  a 
tradition  perhaps  founded  on  the  numerous  sculptured  pu- 
mas ornamenting  the  walls,  the  monarchs  kept  a  menagerie. 
Monumental  doors,8  somewhat  resembling  the  Egyptian 
pylones,  gave  access  to  these  buildings. 

Water-works  were  necessary  not  only  for  the  food-supply 
of  the  population,  but  also  for  irrigation.  Agriculture  was 


FIG.  171. — The  castle  of  Huanuco. 

held  in  great  honor  amongst  the  ancient  Peruvians,  and  no 
difficulty  deterred  them.  In  the  isolated  dunes  which 
formed  the  coast,  the  sand  was  dug  out  to  a  great  depth, 
until  a  naturally  humid  soil  was  reached,  when  the  trenches 
were  filled  with  guano,  the  usefulness  of  which  was  already 
appreciated.  The  gardens  of  the  Inca,  for  such  is  the  name 
given  to  them,  still  retain  their  fertility,  and  it  is  on  a  soil 

1  Huanuco  Viejo,  a  short  distance  from  the  celebrated  silver  mines  of  Cerro 
de  Pasco,  is  so  called  to  distinguish  the  ancient  from  the  modern  town,  situated 
sixteen  leagues  farther  to  the  east.  Xeres  says  that  the  former  was  nearly  three 
leagues  in  circuit.  The  stones,  he  adds,  were  admirably  worked  and  set  one 
upon  the  other  without  cement  or  mortar  of  any  kind.  Paz-Soldan  :  "  Geog. 
del  Peru,"  p.  271. 

*  "  These  ruins  are  interesting  'rom  the  six  stone  portals,  one  within  the 
other." — Bollaeit,  /.  <-.,  p.  199. 


424  P  RE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

thus  prepared  that  grow  the  richest  vines  which  surround 
the  town  of  lea. 

In  a  previous  work  we  remarked '  that  burial  has  ever 
been  one  of  the  most  solemn  subjects  of  thought  for  hu- 
manity, and  a  religious  sentiment  has  always  been  connected 
with  funeral  honors.  To  deprive  men  of  burial,  said  Euripi- 
des, is  to  offend  the  gods.  The.  history  of  Peru  in  its  turn 
tells  us  the  same  story ;  tombs  are  everywhere  numerous, 
and  the  modes  of  burial  are  most  varied.  At  Chimu  corpses 
were  buried  in  a  doubled-up  position,  and  set  in  the  midst  of 
sand,  the  beds  of  which  gradually  decreased  in  size,  so  that 
the  necropolis  formed  a  pyramid  as  it  rose.3  Near  Accra,  a 
little  town  not  far  from  the  lake  of  Titicaca,  the  bodies  were 
placed  under  megalithic  stones,3  reminding  us  of  the  dol- 
mens and  cromlechs  of  Europe  (fig.  172).  One  vast  plain  is 
covered  with  stones  placed  erect,  some  forming  circles,  some 
squares,  and  often  covered  in  with  large  slabs  closing  the 
sepulchral  chamber. 

These  sepulchres  are  the  work  of  the  Aymaras,  and  they 
probably  date  from  the  period  when  these  people  obeyed 
independent  chiefs.  All  we  know  of  their  history  is  that 
their  chiefs  bore  the  title  of  Curacas,  which  they  retained 
under  the  rule  of  the  Incas.  Later,  as  the  country  ad- 
vanced, clumsy  monuments  gave  place  to  more  magnificent 
tombs ;  hence  the  towers  or  clmlpas  which,  mixed  with 
megaliths,  cover  the  whole  of  the  plain  of  Accra.  The 

1  "  Les  Premiers  Homines,"  vol.  II.,  p.  235. 

*  Desjardins  (/.  c.,  p.  168)  describes  one  of  the  largest  of  these  sculptures,  the 
Huaca  San  Pedro. 

9  Megaliths  are  also  met  with,  bearing  witness  to  a  more  advanced  art. 
Wiener  speaks  of  a  cyclopean  structure  near  Vilcabamba,  and  Squier  reproduces 
an  interesting  megalith  which  rises  near  Chicuito.  It  is  a  rectangle  sixty  feet 
long,  formed  of  huge  blocks  of  stones  driven  into  the  earth,  and  rising  fourteen 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  soil.  There  is  but  one  opening,  facing  east,  and 
marked  by  two  blocks  of  considerable  dimensions.  In  South  America  a  certain 
importance  is  attached  to  these  megaliths.  "  Pero  lo  que  sin  duda  es  aun  de 
mas  importancia,  es  encontrarse  por  muchos  puntos  del  territorio  Peruano,  con- 
strucciones  en  piedra,  iguales  por  el  estilo  y  el  caracter  a  esos  cromlechs,  dol- 
menes,  circulos  del  sol  o  druidicos  de  la  Escandinavia  las  islas  Britanicas, 
Francia,  Asia,"  etc.  (Ameghino,  vol.  I.,  p.  100). 


PERU. 


425 


chulpas  consist  of  a  mass  of  masonry  of  rough  stones  and 
clay,  faced  with  huge  blocks  of  trachyte  or  basalt.  The 
mass  is  so  put  together  as  to  form  a  cist,  in  which  the  corpse 
was  placed ;  the  door,  generally  very  low,  always  faces  east, 
in  honor,  doubtless,  of  the  rising  sun.  Almost  all  have  a 
cornice  near  the  top,  and  are  set  upon  a  little  platform  of 
slabs.  Squier  mentions  one  more  than  twenty-four  feet 
high.  An  opening  eighteen  inches  square  gave  access  to 
the  sepulchral  chamber,  which  was  eleven  feet  square  by 
thirteen  high.  He  succeeded  in  getting  into  it  after  great 
difficulties,  but  onlv  to  find  that  others  had  entered  it  before 


Fir,.  172. — Mcgalithic  tomb  at  Acora. 

him,  and  to  pick  up  a  few  remains  of  human  bones  and  some 
miserable  bits  of  pottery. 

We  give  a  drawing  of  one  of  these  chulpas,  situated  in  the 
mountain  near  the  village  of  Palca  (fig.  173).  It  rises  above 
a  trench  four  feet  deep,  forming  a  regular  cave,  upheld  by 
walls  of  rough  stone.  It  is  sixteen  feet  high,  and  at  about 
two  feet  from  the  summit  is  a  cornice,  formed  of  ic/iu,  a 
coarse  grass,  which  grows  in  the  mountains,  greatly  com- 
pressed and  then  cut  with  the  aid  of  sharp  instruments.1 
The  masonry  is  a  mixture  of  pebbles  and  clay,  coated  with 
stucco,  and  then  painted  white  and  red  so  as  to  form  various 

1  Similar  cornices  are  met  with  in  various  places.  Squier  mentions  one  at 
Tiuhuani  ("  Peru,"  p.  368). 


426 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


designs.  Human  bones,  mixed  together  in  the  strangest 
disorder,  formed  a  deposit  more  than  a  foot  deep  in  the 
sepulchral  chamber. 

The  chulpas  are  generally  of  square  or  rectangular  form  ; 
sometimes,  however,  we  meet  with  round  towers,  which  by 
a  peculiar  arrangement  gradually  increase  in  diameter  from 
the  base  to  the  summit.  The  internal  arrangements  differ 
no  less  ;  some  enclose  arched  vaults,  others  cists  shut  in  by 
slabs  of  stone,  or,  again,  mere  niches.  Numerous  in  Bolivia, 
and  in  the  whole  of  the  basin  of  Lake  Titicaca  bounded  bv 


FIG.  173 — Chulpa  near  Palca. 

the  Andes  and  the  Cordillera,  they  can  be  seen  in  groups, 
varying  from  twenty  to  a  hundred,  on  the  sides  of  the 
mountains  or  on  isolated  rocks  ;  everywhere  they  form  one 
of  the  characteristic  features  of  the  landscape. 

Near  Tiuhuani,  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  lake,  we  meet 
with  two  chulpas,  each  containing  two  sepulchral  cists. 
They  are  painted  red,  yellow,  or  white,  and  as  rain  is  ex- 
tremely rare  throughout  the  whole  district,  the  colors  are 
remarkably  well  preserved.  These  double  chulpas,  regular 


PERU.  427 

family  tombs,  contained  as  many  as  twelve  skeletons.  In 
the  Escoma  valley  a  chulpa  is  mentioned,  with  two  sepul- 
chral chambers,  each  with  a  separate  entrance.  It  has  been 
excavated  several  times,  and  completely  stripped  by  tapa- 
das.  Some  fragments  of  human  bones  alone  remain  as  wit- 
ness to  its  original  purpose. 

Las  Casas  '  relates  that,  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  con- 
quest, the  Peruvians  still  practised  this  mode  of  burial.  In 
certain  provinces,  he  adds,  their  sepulchres  are  towers  of 


FIG.  174. — Karthenware  vase  from  an  ancient  Peruvian  tomb.     (One  quarter 
original  size.) 

massive  construction,  hollowed  out  at  the  height  of  an 
estado  (six  feet).  In  certain  spots  they  are  round,  in  others 
square.  They  are  always  very  lofty,  and  numerous  enough 
to  cover  large  spaces.  Some  of  the  natives  built  them  on 
eminences  half  a  league  and  more  from  towns,  so  that  they 
look  from  a  distance  like  populous  villages.  Every  one  has 
a  separate  ancestral  tomb.  The  dead  are  wrapped  in  llama 
skins,  on  which  care  is  taken  to  mark  the  eyes  and  mouth ; 
the  corpses  are  then  covered  with  other  garments,  and 

1  "  Hist,  Apologetica  de  las  Indias," 


428 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


placed  in  a  sitting  posture,  when  the  doors  of  the  tombs, 
which  always  open  to  the  east,  are  walled  up.  In  other 
places  the  dead  are  wrapped  up  as  we  have  described,  and 
then  placed  in  their  houses,  often  among  the  living.  They 
do  not  emit  any  smell,  on  account  of  the  skins  in  which  they 
are  strongly  sewn  up,  and  also  on  account  of  the  cold,  which 
rapidly  mummifies  them.  The  chiefs  are  put  in  the  place  of 


FIG.  175. — Vase  from  a  Peruvian 
tomb.     (One  fourth  natural 
size.) 


FlG.  176. — Vase  from  an  ancient  tomb 
in  the  Bay  of  Chacota.     (One 
fourth  natural  size.) 


honor  of  their  dwelling,  loaded  with  the   insignia  of    their 
rank  and  the  trinkets  they  affected. 

On  the  coast  of  the  Pacific  the  modes  of  burial  were  dif- 
ferent. Near  Quito,  north  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Incas,  the 
body,  reduced  to  a  state  of  complete  desiccation,  was  de- 
posited in  a  tomb  constructed  of  stone  or  adobe,  and  vases, 
often  of  peculiar  form  (figs.  174,  175,  176),  were  placed  near 
the  corpse.  These  vases  '  were  intended  to  hold  maize  or 

1  Some  vases  of  nearly  similar  form    are  still  used  to  prepare  infusions  of 


PERT. 


429 


chicha,  the  latter  obtained  by  the  fermentation  of  roasted 
maize,  which  has  always  been  the  favorite  national  beverage. 


FIG.  177. — Aymara  mummy. 

From  these  tombs  have  been  taken  little  copper  hatchets : 

Coca.     ("  Erythroxylon  coca.")    An  excellent  monograph  on  this  plant,  by  Dr. 
t,.  A.  Cosse,  was  published  at  Brussels  in  1861. 


43°  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

looking-glasses,  some  of  polished  stone  or  obsidian,  others  of 
metal ;  pendants  for  the  nose  or  the  ears  ;  bracelets  and  little 
figures  in  gold  or  silver.  In  the  extreme  south  of  the  whole 
of  the  valley  of  Copiapo  (Chili)  is  covered  with  mound- 
shaped  huacas,  measuring  as  much  as  twelve  feet  in  height, 
by  twenty  or  thirty  long.  Darwin,  in  his  voyage  round  the 
world,  assisted  at  the  excavation  of  one  of  these  tumuli, 
which  contained  two  skeletons,  one  of  a  man  and  one  of  a 
woman.  (Fig.  177.)  Judging  from  the  objects  picked  up 
in  this  tomb,  its  inmates  had  belonged  to  the  poorest  class. 
These  objects  were  large  earthenware  jars  of  the  coarsest 
workmanship,  stone  arrow-points,  copper  pins,  and  roughly 
hewn  stones,  intended  for  grinding  maize.1 

Between  these  two  extremes  we  meet  with  other  tombs, 
varying  according  to  the  wealth  of  the  survivor.  Some  hu- 
acas near  Arica,  excavated  in  1712,  have  brought  to  light 
mummies  wrapped  in  rich  cloth,  having  beside  them  vases 
of  gold  or  silver."  The  bodies,  mummified  by  the  dryness  of 
the  climate,  for  they  show  no  trace  of  embalming,  were  in  a 
sitting  posture ;  several  held  in  the  mouth  a  little  golden 
plaque.8  In  1836,  other  explorers  resumed  these  excavations 
on  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Chacota,  a  mile  and  a  half  from 
Arica.4  The  tombs  were  all  of  circular  form,  their  diameter 
varying  from  three  to  five  feet,  and  their  depth  from  five  to 
six.  They  were  often  surrounded  by  a  cromlech  of  erect 
stones,  whilst  others  were  surmounted  by  a  mound.  All  re- 
tained traces  of  large  fires  lighted  after  the  burial,  doubtless 
in  accordance  with  a  sacred  rite. 

The  greater  number  of  these  tombs  had  been  violated. 
Those  still  intact  enable  us  to  judge  of  the  mode  of  burial  ; 
some  of  the  corpses  had  evidently  been  dried  before  inhu- 
mation ;  others  were  covered  with  a  resinous  substance.5 

1  "Voyage  of  the  Beagle."     Bollaert,  /.  c.,  p.  175. 
1  Bollaert,  loc.  cit.,  p.   151. 

*  Rivera  et  Tschudi  :  "  Antiguidades  Peruanas." 

4  J.  Blake  :  "  Notes  on  a  Collection  from  the  Ancient  Cemetery  of  the  Bay  of 
Chacota"  ;  "Report  Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  II.,  p.  177,  etc. 

'  Agassiz  mentions  mummies  preserved  by  this  process  at  Pisagua.     Accord- 


PERU.  43* 

All  were  seated  on  slabs  of  stone,  the  arms  folded  on  the 
breast,  the  legs  drawn  up,  and  the  head  resting  on  the  knees. 
They  were  clothed  in  coarse  linen  cloth,  sewn  with  strong 
cactus  thorns  like  needles,  which  were  left  in  the  garment. 
The  bodies  wore  all  the  objects  used  during  life ;  men  (fig. 


FIG.  178. — Peruvian  mummy. 

178)  had  their  weapons,  implements,  and  ornaments;  chil- 

ing  to  Putnam,  those  from  the  necropolis  of  Ancon,  are  not  embalmed  by  the 
aid  of  resinous  substances.  On  this  latter  cemetery,  Wiener  ("  Peru  and 
Bolivia"),  who  has  excavated  numerous  tombs,  should  be  consulted,  and  also 
the  magnificent  work  by  Reuss  and  Sttibel  :  "  The  Necropolis  of  Ancon  in 
Peru." 


432 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


dren  their  toys ;  women,1  their  distaffs  filled  with  wool,  and 
balls  of  thread,  wooden  needles,  often  of  great  fineness, 
combs,  and  several  instruments  of  which  the  use  is  unknown  ; 
little  shells  used  for  money * ;  bags  containing  either  hair 
(the  last  memento  given  to  the  dead)  or  provisions  for  the 
long  voyage — such  as  ears  of  maize  or  coca  leaves.  The 
Peabody  Museum  owns  a  regular  work-box,  containing  a 
woman's  implements  for  needle-work,  which  was  found  under 
a  huaca  of  Peru. 


FIG.  179. — Mummy  of  a  woman,  found  at  the  Bay  of  Chacota. 

All  these  objects,  thanks  to  the  dryness  of  the  climate, 
are  in  a  wonderful  state  of  preservation.8  With  touching 
thoughtfulness,  the  relations  of  the  dead  woman,  whose  re- 
mains we  figure,  had  placed  near  her  not  only  vases  of 
every  shape  (fig.  174,  175,  176,  180),  but  also  the  cloth  that 

1  The  figure  we  give  (fig.  179),   is  reproduced    from  a  photograph,    prepared 
after  all  the  objects  worn  by  the  woman  had  been  taken  off. 
*  "  Littorina  Peruvians. " 
'  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  1881,  p.  550. 


PERU.  433 

she  had  begun  to  weave,  and  which  death  had  prevented 
her  from  finishing.1  Her  hair,  of  a  light-brown  color,  was 
fine  and  carefully  kept.  The  legs,  from  the  ankle  to  the 
knee,  were  painted  red,  a  fashion  probably  dear  to  Peruvian 
coquetry,  for  care  had  been  taken  to  place  near  the  dead 
little  bladders  full  of  resinous  gum  and  red  powder  for  her 
toilet  in  the  new  life  that  had  begun  for  her.1 

At  Iquique,  one  huaca  contained  no  less  than  five  hundred 
bodies,  all  seated  and  wrapped  in  long  mantles  of  different 
colors.3  Some  rites  are  still  unexplained  ;  for  instance,  in 


FIG.  1 80. — Bowl  from  a  tomb  at  Chacota  Bay. 

1830,  a  huaca  was  discovered  surrounded  by  a  circle  of  red 
stones,  in  the  centre  of  which  was  found  the  skeleton  of  a 
woman,  and  near  her  those  of  four  men,  on  each  of  which 
three  large  stones  had  been  placed.  Amongst  the  numerous 
objects  belonging  to  this  sepulchre,  the  statuette  of  a 
woman  is  mentioned,  with  the  face  of  silver. 

Pachacamac,  as  we  have  said,  was  a  sacred  place  to  the 

1  At  Pachacamac  excavations  have  brought  to  light  a  loom  of  half-woven 
tissue. 

1  The  Galibi  women  still  paint  their  legs  with  Toncou,  a  vegetable  powder  of 
a  fine  red,  which  they  dissolve  in  oil  extracted  from  certain  oleaginous  seeds, 

1  Bollaert,  /.  c.,  p.  179. 


434 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


ancient  inhabitants  of  Peru,  and  the  temple  was  a  goal  of 
pilgrimage.  Its  approaches  are  one  vast  cemetery,  and  the 
sandy  soil,  impregnated  as  it  is  with  nitre,  has  preserved  to 
this  day  the  mummies  entrusted  to  the  ground.  In  some 
places  it  is  easy  to  make  out  three  or  four  layers  of  bodies  ; 
generations  of  worshippers  rest  beneath  the  shadow  of  the 
walls  that  were  the  object  of  their  adoration.  The  tombs 
were  made  of  adobe,  and  were  thatched  over  with  reeds. 
The  bodies  were  doubled  up,  or  rather  coiled  round,  and 
then  wrapped  in  very  fine  cotton  cloth,  and  in  coverings 

made  from  the  wool  of  the 
vicufta  or  the  alpaca.  Here 
too  the  tombs  contained 
the  most  diverse  objects. 
The  rich  retained  their 
ormaments,  but  the  poor 
had  to  be  content  with  a 
little  bit  of  copper,  which 
served  the  purpose  of  the 
obolus  set  aside  for  Charon 
in  the  funeral  rites  of 
Greece.  Wiener,  in  his 
excavations  at  A  n  c  o  n  , 
found  a  great  number  of 
these  little  silver  or  bronze 
plates  placed  in  the  mouths 
of  the  mummies.  By  the  side  of  each  were  placed  the  im- 
plements of  his  profession ;  near  the  fisher,  net  and  fish- 
hooks, near  the  young  girl,  household  utensils.  With  the 
vases  always  met  with  in  Peruvian  sepulchres  were  often 
found  at  Pachacamac  roughly  cut  bits  of  quartz  or  crystal, 
which  were,  according  to  Father  Arriaga,1  Canopas,  the 
Lares  Penates,  or  gods  of  the  hearth,  who  were  to  continue 
their  protection  to  the  deceased  in  the  new  life  on  which  he 
was  entering ;  the  canopas,  whose  duty  it  was  to  watch  over 
the  family,  were  always  given  to  the  eldest  son. 

1 "  Extirpacion  de  la  Idolatria  del  Peru,"  Lima,  1621. 


FIG.  181. — Pitcher  from  an  ancient  Peru- 
vian sepulchre.     (Natural  size.) 


PERU.  435 

Leaving  the  Pacific  we  find  caves,  artificially  widened  if 
necessary,  often  serving  as  burial-places.  In  the  valley  of 
Yucay,  as  in  that  overlooked  by  the  fortress  of  Pisac,  the 
almost  inaccessible  sides  of  the  mountains  are  covered  with 
them  to  a  height  of  several  hundred  feet  ;  and  to  this  day 
the  few  inhabitants  of  the  country  call  them,  in  memory  of 
their  inmates,  Tantama-Marca,  or  the  precipices  of  desola- 
tion. The  funereal  rites  were  similar  to  those  we  have  de- 
scribed ;  the  bodies  were  seated,  sometimes  wrapped  in  cot- 
ton cloth,  sometimes  in  mere  mats,  but  all  have  the  head 
resting  on  the  knees  ;  some  vases  and  very  rude  implements 
made  up  all  the  furniture  of  the  tombs. 

In  the  valley  of  Paucar-Tambo  the  rocks  had  been  levelled, 
and  the  tombs  wrought  of  dressed  stone.  They  were  walled 
up  after  the  burial,  and  the  stones  were  covered  with  a  coat- 
ing of  stucco,  painted  in  brilliant  colors.  The  care  bestowed 
on  these  tombs  was  an  irresistible  attraction  to  the  tapadas ; 
they  were  the  first  to  be  violated,  and  every  thing  that 
they  contained  was  dispersed,  without  any  good  results  for 
science.1 

Many  travellers  also  mention  a  cave  of  some  extent,  which 
has  received  the  appropriate  name  of  Infernillos?  At  the 
entrance  are  rude  sculptures,  representing  personages  of  both 
sexes.  On  the  \valls  we  notice,  several  times  repeated,  the 
impression  of  a  human  hand,  traced  either  with  cinnabar  or 
oxide  of  iron,  or  yet  more  simply  by  the  application  of  an 
actual  hand,  wet  with  a  coloring  substance.  This  is  the 
mano  Colorado,  of  the  meaning  of  which  we  are  ignorant,  but 
which  is  met  with  at  various  points  in  the  two  Americas,  and 
also  in  Australia.3 

The  Peruvians  distinguished  the  intelligent  and  immaterial 
soul  (runa)  from  the  body,  the  name  of  which  (allpacamasca), 
animated  earth,  is  characteristic.4  They  believed  in  a  future 
life ;  and  the  man  who  had  well  employed  the  time  of  his 

1  Squier  :   "  Peru,"  pp.  491-531. 

*  Bollaert,  /.  (.,  p.  152. 

*  Miles  :  "  Trans.  Ethn.  Soc.  of  London,"  vol.  III.     2\'aiurt,  May  7,  1881. 
4  Desjardins,  /.  f.,  p.  100. 


43°"  pRR-nrsTOKic  AMERICA. 


mortality  went  after  death  to  the  Hananpacha,  the  world 
above,  where  he  awaited  his  reward.  If,  on  the  contrary,  he 
had  led  a  bad  life,  he  was  flung  into  the  Urupacha,  or  world 
below.  This  future  life,  whether  happy  or  unhappy,  was  to 
be  entirely  material.  How  else  can  we  interpret  the  very 
different  objects  collected  in  the  tombs,  among  the  Aymaras 
as  well  as  among  the  Qquichuas,  among  the  predecessors  of 
the  Incas,  and  among  the  contemporaries  of  the  Spaniards? 

The  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  recompense 
of  the  good  and  the  punishment  of  the  wicked,  necessarily 
implies  that  in  the  existence  of  beings  superior  to  man,  ex- 
ercising over  him  an  influence  alike  during  his  life  and  after 
his  death.  The  Peruvians  worshipped,  as  we  have  more  than 
once  remarked,  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  and  thunder. 
In  certain  districts  the  earth  was  the  object  of  their  worship  ; 
in  others,  the  sea,  the  springs,  the  mountains,  chiefly  those 
covered  with  snow  (razji).  Stones  were  also  objects  of 
the  veneration  of  the  Peruvians.  This  is  explained  by  one 
of  their  traditions,  which  relates  that  Viracocha  had  endowed 
stones  with  life,  and  thus  created  the  first  men  and  the  first 
women. 

Side  by  side  with  the  visible  forces  of  nature  existed  cer- 
tain inferior  gods  :  Papapconopa,  who  was  invoked  to  ensure 
a  good  harvest  of  potatoes  (sweet  potatoes)  ;  Canllama,  the 
protector  of  flocks  ;  ChicJiic,  who,  like  the  god  Termes,  en- 
sured respect  for  landed  property  ;  and  Lacarvillca,  who  pre- 
sided over  works  of  irrigation.  In  other  places  the  dead 
themselves  were  invoked  as  the  protectors  of  their  families. 
These  gods  were  probably  the  modified  representatives  of  a 
more  ancient  fetichism,  which  have  outlived  the  people 
among  whom  it  originated.  Some  less  civilized  tribes 
adored  animals,  such  as  the  condor,  the  puma,  the  owl,  and 
the  serpent  ;  and  even  the  products  of  the  earth,  such  as 
maize  and  potatoes.  But  these  different  people,  in  submit- 
ting to  the  laws  of  the  Peruvians,  were  converted,  willingly 
or  by  force,  to  the  worship  of  the  sun.  The  wars  of  the 
Incas  had  an  essentially  religious  character,1  and  may  be 

1  Desjardins,  /.  (.,  p.  95. 


PERU.  437 

compared  with  those  of  the  Mussulmans,  at  the  time  when 
Islamism,  propagated  by  the  sword,  spread  with  such  rapid- 
ity over  whole  regions. 

Recent  investigations  have  shown  that,  at  a  certain  period, 
Peruvian  priests  taught  the  existence  of  a  supreme  god,  a 
Dcus  ignotus,  to  whom  no  temple  was  dedicated,1  and  whose 
image  none  were  permitted  to  make.5  He  was  adored  under 
the  name  of  Pachacamac,  in  upper  Peru,  under  that  of  Vira- 
cocha  at  Cuzco ;  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars  were  but 
the  symbols  under  which  he  manifested  himself  to  men ; 
animals  were  his  creation,  and  the  fruits  of  the  earth  a  gift 
of  his  bounty.  Molina  has  preserved  some  very  beautiful 
prayers,  addressed  to  this  particular  god  and  creator;  they 
bear  witness  to  the  most  elevated  sentiments  in  their  authors.* 
But  their  authenticity  does  not  seem  sufficiently  proved  ; 
the  attributes  ascribed  to  this  god  are  inconsistent  with  the 
general  state  of  culture  in  Peru  at  that  period,  and  it  is 
probable  that,  if  the  idea  of  one  supreme  God  did  exist 
amongst  a  few  enlightened  spirits,  the  masses  identified  with 
this  god  himself,  the  symbols  which,  to  the  more  enlightened, 
represented  his  attributes. 

The  Peruvians  offered  flowers,  incense,  animals,  such  as 
tapirs  and  serpents  to  their  gods.  At  the  grand  festival  of 
the  Raymi  or  sacred  fire,  a  llama  was  sacrificed.  On  certain 
solemn  occasions,  such  as  a  victory  or  the  accession  of  an 
Inca,  for  instance,  a  child  or  a  virgin,  chosen  for  her  beauty,4 

1  There  exists,  however,  a  temple  erected  in  honor  of  this  supreme  god,  by 
the  Inca  Viracocha,  to  whom  he  had  appeared  to  command  him,  on  the  refusal 
of  his  father,  Yahuar-IIuacac,  to  march  against  enemies  who  had  dared  to  in- 
vade the  lands  of  the  sun,  promising  him  a  decisive  victory.  Garcilasso  has 
preserved  for  us  a  description  of  this  temple,  which  was  destroyed  by  the 
Spanish. 

*  "  Relacion  Anonym,   de    las  Costumbres  Antiguas  de  los   Naturales   de 
Peru." 

*  "  Saggio  della  Storia  del  Chili."     Markham  :  "  Narratives  of  the  Rites  and 
Laws  of  the  Incas,"  published  for  the  Ilakluyt  Society,  London,  1873. 

4  Garcilasso  ("  Com.  Real.,"  part  I.,  book  II.,  ch.  IX.)  nsserts  that  human 
sacrifices  had  been  completely  abolished  by  the  Incas,  but  the  contrary  is  as- 
serted by  the  Spanish  chroniclers,  Sarmiento,  Montesinos,  Balboa,  Oie£a  de 


438  PRE-HISTORIC    AMERICA. 

was  slain  before  the  image  of  the  sun  ;  but  these  sacrifices 
were  rare,  and  they  were  never  followed  by  the  revolting 
feasts  which  invariably  accompanied  human  sacrifices 
amongst  the  Mexicans. 

It  is  pretended  that  confession  existed  amongst  the  Peru- 
vians, and  several  Spanish  historians  *  agree  in  asserting  this. 
No  one  had  the  special  privilege  of  hearing  it ;  it  could  be 
made  to  all,  to  men  or  to  women  ;  and  the  confessor  had  the 
right  of  imposing  a  penance,  according  to  the  gravity  of  the 
faults  confessed.  A  certain  importance  has  been  assigned  to 
these  practices,  by  connecting  them  with  the  dogmas  of 
Christianity.  We  think,  however,  that  this  is  merely  an  in- 
teresting coincidence,  if  true. 

The  despotic  authority  of  the  Incas  was  the  basis  of  gov- 
ernment ;  that  authority  was  founded  on  the  religious  re- 
spect yielded  to  the  descendant  of  the  sun,  and  supported 
by  a  skilfully  combined  hierarchy.2  The  population  was  di- 
vided into  decuries,  and  amongst  the  ten  individuals  who 
formed  each  decury,  the  Inca  or  his  representatives  chose 
one,  who  became  the  chief  over  the  nine  others.  Five  decu- 
ries had  at  their  head  a  decurion  of  superior  rank ;  fifty 
decuries  a  chief,  who  thus  commanded  five  hundred  men. 
Lastly,  one  hundred  decuries  obeyed  a  supreme  chief,  who 
received  orders  direct  from  the  Inca. 

Besides  this  organization,  which  shared  the  combined  in- 
conveniences of  democracy  and  despotism,  were  the  Curacas, 
or  governors  of  provinces,  Some  belonged  to  the  family 
of  the  Incas  ;  others  were  descended  from  the  ancient  chiefs 

Leon,  Ondegardo,  and  Acosta.  Their  unanimity  justifies  us  in  supposing  that 
Garcilasso,  as  a  descendant  of  the  Incas,  was  carried  away  in  his  account  by  his 
natural  veneration  for  his  ancestors. 

"  Este  vilahoma  eligia  senalaba  confesores,  paraque  asi  en  el  Cuzco  como 
en  todas  las  demas  provincias  y  pueblos  confesasen  secretamente  a  todas  las 
personas,  hombres  y  mujeres,  oyendo  sus  pecados  y  dando  las  penitencias  per 
ellos."  The  anonymous  author  of  the  account  from  which  we  borrow  these  de- 
tails adds  that  the  confessors  of  the  virgins  of  the  sun  were  obliged  to  be  eu- 
nuchs. See  Herrera :  "Hist.  Gen.,"  dec.  V.,  book  IV.,  chap.  IV.  Acosta, 
/.  c. ,  ch.  XXV. 

*  Desjardins,  /.  £.,  p.  117. 


PERU.  439 

of  conquered  countries.  Their  dignity  appears  to  have 
been  hereditary ;  it  passed  to  the  eldest  of  the  sons,  or,  in 
default  of  children,  to  the  eldest  of  the  brothers.  Little  is 
known  as  to  the  exact  position  of  the  Curacas.  In  certain 
cases  they  were  elected  by  the  people,  but  the  election  was 
subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Inca,  who  could  also  revoke 
it. 

Penal  laws  were  severe,1  and  were  enforced  by  the  sole 
authority  of  the  Inca.  Those  guilty  of  homicide  or  adultery, 
those  who  had  dared  to  blaspheme  the  sun,  or  the  Inca,  his 
representative,  were  punished  with  death.  The  decurion 
who  did  not  denounce  the  crimes  committed  in  his  decury 
was  liable  to  the  same  punishment  as  the  guilty.  The 
sodomite  was  flayed,  the  incestuous  hung.  Marriage  was  per- 
mitted between  relations  outside  of  the  second  degree.  As 
with  the  vestals  of  Rome,  the  virgins  of  the  sun  who  broke 
their  vows  were  buried  alive  ;  their  house  was  razed  to  the 
ground,  and  the  village  or  town  inhabited  by  their  family 
shared  the  same  fate.  More  venial  faults  were  punished 
with  the  whip  or  imprisonment.  In  other  cases  the  guilty 
was  compelled  to  carry  a  heavy  stone  for  a  certain  time. 

Marriage  was  obligatory  ;  a  man  could  only  have  one 
wife  ;  but  the  Curacas  had  a  dispensation  from  this  rule  ; 
as  for  the  Inca,  the  number  of  his  wives  or  his  concubines 
was  unlimited.  He  chose  them  from  among  the  daughters 
of  his  race,  even  amongst  his  sisters,  and  among  those  vir- 
gins of  the  sun  who  attracted  him  by  their  beauty.  His 
choice  was  limited  neither  by  blood-relationship  nor  religious 
respect.  When  he  was  tired  of  one  of  his  temporary  partners, 
the  honor  of  having  shared  the  royal  bed  followed  her  in 
her  retreat  and  she  was  the  object  of  the  respect  of  all. 

On  a  certain  day  of  each  year,  the  young  men  of  twenty- 
four  years  and  the  girls  of  eighteen  were  united  in  the 
public  square.  The  representatives  of  the  Inca  joined  the 

1  "  El  castigo  era  riguroso  que  por  la  mayor  parte  era  de  muerte  por  liviano 
que  fuese  el  delito."  Garcilasso  :  "Com.  Reales,"  part  I.,  book  II.,  ch.  XII, 
Ch.  F.  de  Santillan  and  the  anonymous  account. 


440  PKE-niSTORIC  A  ME  K  1C  A. 

hands  of  each  couple,  and  proclaimed  their  union  before  the 
people.  Such  was  the  only  form  of  marriage ;  it  does  not 
appear  that  the  inclination  of  the  wedded  pair  was  consulted, 
and  generally  every  one  married  in  his  own  family.  The 
decury,  which  none  could  leave  without  the  express  permis- 
sion of  the  Inca,  was  bound  to  have  a  home  built  for  each 
new  household,  and  to  assign  to  it  land  enough  for  its  sup- 
port. On  the  birth  of  each  child,  the  allowance  made  was 
increased  by  one  fanega  for  a  boy,  and  a  half-fanega  for  a 
girl,  the  exact  value  of  which  is  unknown.  We  only  know 
that  a  fanega  was  equal  to  the  area  which  could  be  sown 
with  one  hundred  pounds  of  maize. 

This  division  of  the  land  was  modified  by  an  annual  re- 
vision, and  a  new  partition  took  place  according  to  the  num- 
ber of  the  members  of  each  family.  This  was,  as  will  be 
seen,  a  regular  agrarian  law.  Private  property,  such  as  we 
understand  it,  does  not  appear  to  have  existed.1  The  Peru- 
vian was  simply  the  farmer  for  a  year  of  the  lot  which  fate  or 
the  will  of  the  decurions  assigned  to  him.  Besides  the  lands 
belonging  to  the  community,  and  divisible  amongst  all  its 
members,  there  were  others,  and  these  not  the  least  impor- 
tant, forming  the  exclusive  property  of  the  Sun  or  the  Inca. 
The  inhabitants  had  to  cultivate  the  lands,  even  at  their  own 
expense  ;  and  none  but  the  sick  or  infirm  could  evade  this 
sacred  duty. 

Llamas  were  the  chief  domestic  animal  of  Peru.  These 
animals  which,  like  their  congeners,  the  camels,  can  exist 
with  the  most  wretched  nourishment  and  live  where  other 
mammals  would  die  of  hunger,  were  valuable  in  these  barren 
regions.  All  belonged  to  the  Inca.  He  chose  the  shep- 
herds who  took  them  in  immense  herds  into  the  mountains ; 
and  at  the  time  appointed  their  wool  was  carried  to  the 
magazines  built  to  receive  it.  A  certain  quantity  of  wool 

1  "  Rel.  primera  del  Licenciado  Polo  cle  Ondegardo."  Ondegardo  had  been 
corregidor  of  Cuzco  about  1560.  Prescott  obtained  a  copy  of  his  reports  which 
were  addressed  to  Philip  II.,  and  are  preserved  in  the  archives  of  Simancas. 
They  have  since  been  partly  printed,  at  the  cost  of  the  Hakluyt  Society  of 
London. 


PERU. 


441 


FIG.  182.    -Sepulchral  vase  from  a 
huaca  of  Peru. 


was  distributed  to  each  family,  according  to  the  number  of 
women  contained  in  it  ;  and  whilst  the  men  were  cultivating 
the  ground,  the  former 
spun  and  wove  the  neces- 
sary garments.  The  women 
had  also  to  make  a  certain 
quantity  of  cloth  which 
was  stored  away  as  a  re- 
serve for  the  unforeseen 
needs  of  the  community. 
The  dwellings  of  the  Pe- 
ruvians were  in  harmony 
with  the  position  of  their 
inhabitants.  Except  that 
of  the  Incas  or  of  the  Cur- 
acas,  all  appear  to  have 
been  built  on  the  same 
model ' ;  the  rooms  had  no 
communication  except  by  outer  doors  opening  upon  a  cor- 
ridor, which  ran  along  the 
whole  length  of  the  build- 
ing, and  which  may  be 
compared  with  ancient 
cloisters.  Some  of  the  roofs 
had  a  double4  slope  rest- 
ing on  lateral  walls  with 
two  gables,  on  which  were 
carried  cross-pieces  formed 
of  cane,  which  were  cov- 
ered with  agave  leaves, 
maize-straw,  and  some- 
times even  with  mats. 

The  organization  above 
described  guaranteed   the 
FIG.  183.— Peruvian  vase  representing  a      undisputed  authority  of  the 
man  squatting  on  the  ground.  supreme  master.     Each  in- 


1  Comte  de  Sartiges  :  Rev.  des  Deux  Mondes,  1851. 
'J  Wiener,  /.  c.,  p.  503. 


442 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


dividual  formed  part  of  a  clan,  which  he  was  forbidden  to  leave. 
He  could  not  ameliorate  either  his  own 
position,  or  that  of  those  belonging  to 
him ;  nor  could  he  sink  beneath  it. 
Hence  the  motives  which  most  power- 
fully move  man,  such  as  patriotism,  am- 
bition, the  desire  of  wealth  and  the  spirit 
of  invention,  were  altogether  wanting. 
Public  spirit  could  not  develop,  and  this 
is  the  best  explanation  of  the  strange  ra- 
pidity with  which  a  few  Spanish  adven- 
turers reduced  to  submission  a  popula- 
tion of  several  million  souls. 

Peruvian  pottery  was  equal  in  execu- 
FIG.  184.— Peruvian     tion  to  the  best  made  by  the  other  races 
of  America.     The  potter's  wheel  appears, 
however,  to  be  unknown,  and  the  regularity  that  the  work- 
men obtained  without  the  employment  of  mechanical  means 


FlG.  185. — Piece  of  Peruvian  pottery,  representing  a  llama. 

is  astonishing.  In  the  archaeological  museum  at  Madrid 
may  be  seen  a  very  complete  series  of  vessels  from  the 
Pacific  coast,  some  intended  to  be  put  on  the  fire  and  others 
for  use  at  table,  or  in  the  different  apartments.  The  forms 


PERU. 


443 


are  extremely  varied,  from  the  clumsiest  vessel,  reminding 
us  of  the  lake  pottery  of  Europe,  to  ewers  of  excellent  work- 
manship, representing  men,  animals,  and  a  curious  series  of 
plants,  the  study  of  which  will  enable  us  to  recognize  many 
species  of  the  ancient  flora  of  the  country. 

This  pottery '  was  black,  gray,  or  red,  more  rarely  yellow 
or  blue,2  baked  in  a  kiln,3  and  covered  outside  with  a  per- 
meable varnish,  probably  silico-alkaline.  Some  have  attribu- 
ted this  varnish  to  polishing  when  cold  ;  but  Demmin  has 
proved  that  it  was  obtained  by  means  of  baking,  for  he  could 
not  get  it  off,  either  with  spirits  of  wine  or  volatile  oil. 

The  vases  were  moulded 
in  two  pieces,  and  joined  be- 
fore baking ;  so  that  they 
often  show  a  swelling  at  the 
joint.  The  form  was  often 
ovoid  (fig.  176),  and  a  special 
stand  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  keep  them  upright. 
The  ornamentation  has  an 
originality  of  its  own ;  it  is 
less  simple  and  more  involved 
than  that  of  the  Mexicans. 
Some  vases  are,  however,  dec- 
orated  with  Greek  frets,  loz-  FlG"  l86'~  Peruvian  pottery' 

enges,  chevrons,  spirals,  or  concentric  circles  (figs.  174,  175, 
182).  The  Louvre  possesses  a  remarkable  piece,  of  Peruvian 
origin,  unfortunately  hidden  away  for  many  years  in  the  reserve 
collection.4  Its  ornaments  bear  witness  to  a  singular  paral- 
lelism between  Greek  and  American  art.  The  reserve  col- 
lections of  the  Louvre  also  contain  another  piece  of  pottery 

1  Desjardins,  /.  c.,  p.  171.     Wiener  :  "  Peru  and  Bolivia,"  p.  620,  et  seg. 

'Demmin:  "Guide  de  1'  amateur  de  faiences  ou  de  porcelaines."  3d. 
edition,  Paris,  1867.  Barnard  Davis,  Anth.  Institute  of  Great  Britain, 
April,  1873. 

1  Bollaert  (/.  c.,  p.  210)  says  that  the  pottery  was  baked  in  the  sun,  and  that 
the  use  of  the  kiln  was  unknown.  This  is  an  evident  error. 

4  Demmin,  /.  r.,  p.  134.     Birch:  "Ancient  Pottery,"  vol.  II.,  p.  253. 


444 


PKE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


from  the  Pacific  coast,  the  design  of  which  reminds  us  of 
Hercules  struggling  with  a  fish,  a  subject  so  often  reproduced 
by  the  Etruscans.  At  the  ethnographical  museum  of  St. 
Petersburg  we  may  also  see  a  squatting  figure  rather  more 
than  a  foot  high,  of  which  the  disproportionately  long  ears 
recall  the  Orejones,  whilst  the  head  is  surmounted  by  a 
mural  crown  resembling  that  worn  by  certain  antique 


FIG.   187. — A  vase  found  at  Chimbote. 

statues.1     There  is  indeed  not  a  single  Peruvian  collection, 
public  or  private,"  which  does  not  contain  types  curiously  re- 

'Schobel:  "  Antiquite's  Ame'ricaines  du  Musee  Ethnographique  de  Saint 
Petersbourg. "  "Cong,  des  Americ.,"  Nancy,  1875,  vol.  II.,  p.  273. 

"The  Macedo  collection,  recently  acquired  by  the  Prussian  Government,  con- 
tains numerous  types  of  animals.  Many  are  reproduced  in  the  Nouvelle  Revue 
d Ethnographie  (1882,  No.  I),  which,  under  the  skilful  direction  of  Dr.  Hamy, 
is  destined  to  render  real  service  to  science.  The  Louvre  Museum  also  pos- 


PERU. 


445 


sembling  those  which  have 
wrongly  been  supposed  to 
be  exclusively  character- 
istic of  the  Old  World. 

Numerous  pieces  of  pot- 
tery represent  men  (figs. 
183,  184),  animals  in  famil- 
iar attitudes  (figs.  185, 1 86); 
a  llama,  for  instance,  eat- 
ing an  ear  of  corn. 

The  Peabody  Museum 
possesses  fifty-one  pieces 
from  the  Agassiz  collec- 
tion, among  them  several 
representatives  of  mon- 
keys, and  three  human  fig- 
ures, from  thirteen  to  sev- 
teen  inches  in  height.  Two 
vases  found,  one  at  Chim- 


FIG.  189. — A  silvador. 


188. — Earthenware  vase  found  under 
a  htraca  near  Santa. 


bote  (fig.  190),  the 
other  under  a  huaca 
near  Santa  (fig.  188), 
are  remarkable.  The 
first  is  the  work  of 
the  Chimus,  and 
dates  from  the  time 
of  the  domination 
of  the  Incas,  for  the 
ears  are  distended 
by  an  ornament  dat- 
ing from  the  same 
period ;  the  second 
is  a  human  figure  in 
red  clay,  of  a  very 
characteristic  type. 


sesses,  in  one  of  its  public  rooms,  a  valuable  collection  of  statuettes  of  men 
and  animals.  De  Longperier  :  "  Notice  des  monuments  expose'e  dans  la  salle 
des  Antiquites  Ame'ricaines,"  Nos.  658,  et  seq. 


446 


PRE-HISTOH1C  AMERICA. 


The  silvador  (fig.  189),  for  such  is  the  name  given  to  a 
piece  of  pottery  preserved  in  the  Trocadero  Museum, 
deserves  special  mention,  if  only  on  account  of  its  original- 
ity. It  consists  of  two  vases  with  necks  communicating 


FIG.  190. — Piece  of  painted  pottery  representing  a  vicufia  hunter. 

with  each  other.1  One  only  of  these  necks  is  open,  and 
when  liquid  is  poured  into  it,  the  compressed  air  in  the  other 
escapes  with  a  peculiar  whistle  ;  by  a  skilful  contrivance  the 

1 J.  Bertillon  :  Nature,  loth  June,  1882.  Wiener  reproduces  a  certain  num- 
ber of  silvadors  ;  they  resemble  the  Etruscan  nasiternes,  and  yet  more  the 
double  jars  which  are  still  manufactured  in  Kabylia. 


PERU. 


447 


sounds  are  modified  so  as  to  imitate  the  cries  of  different 
animals,  and  even  the  human  voice.  On  the  mouth  of  one 
vase,  of  which 
we  give  a 
drawing,  is  a 
little  figure 
fairly  well  ex- 
ecuted, repre- 
senting a  man 
holding  a 
tomahawk, 
the  most  for- 
midable wea- 
pon of  the 
ancient  Peru- 
vians. 

Some    pieces 
of    pottery   are 
ornamented 
with    subjects 
the  execution    of   which 
is.  generally    very    infe- 
rior ;    and  we  even  won- 
der if  the  vicuna  hunter 
(fig.  190)  is  not  actually 
a    caricature.     Some    of 
these  paintings    are   cer- 
tainly    symbolical,     but 
their      interpretation     is 
purely   conjectural;  oth- 
ers are  more  obscene,1  and, 
singularly  enough,  many 
of  them  have  been  picked 
up  under  huacas,  mixed    FlGS  igi  and  1Q2  _Disks  intended  to  be 


with  human  bones. 


used  as  ear  pendants. 


.    ' "  From  the  north  of  Peru   I  have   seen   clny   figures  characterized    by 
prurient  indecency,"    Bollaert,  /.  c. ,  p.  211. 


FIG.   193. — Peruvian  cloth. 
448 


PERU. 


449 


Like  the  Mexicans,  the  Peruvians  made  of  earthenware 
musical  instruments,  such  as  shepherd's  pipes  or  trumpets, 
and  ornaments  of  all  kinds,  especially  heavy  disks  (figs.  191, 
192),  intended  to  be  worn  in  the  ears*  and  producing  by 
their  weight  the  grotesque  forms  characteristic  of  the  sub- 
jects of  the  Incas. 

No  American  people  has  surpassed  the  Peruvians  in  the 
manufacture  of  woven  tissues.  The  cotton  they  cultivated 
in  the  warm  and  humid  valleys,  with  the  wool  of  llamas, 
alpacas,  and  vicunas,  supplied  excellent  material.  They 
knew  the  art  of 
dyeing,  the  stuff 
was  often  woven 
in  wool  of  differ- 
ent colors,  and 
by  this  means 
the  most  varied 
designs  were  ob- 
tained in  the 
woof  (fig.  193). 
The  cotton 
cloths,  generally 
of  great  fineness, 
were  dyed  in  dif- 
ferent colors; 
and  the  workmen 
knew  how,  by 
combinations  of  FIG.  194. — Die  for  cl^th  printing, 

ornaments  or  figures,  to  obtain  the  most  happy  results.  For 
this  purpose  they  used  regular  stamps,  sometimes  of  bark, 
sometimes  of  eathenware  (fig.  194)  ;  they  also  added  feathers 
of  brilliant  colors,  tastily  shaded,  and  the  garments  of  the 
Incas  and  Curacas,  with  their  undulating  colors,  excited  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  first  Spanish  chroniclers.  Many  interesting 
specimens  of  these  Peruvian  stuffs  maybe  seen  in  the  British 
Museum,  and  were  described  several  years  ago  by  Bollaert. 

In  the  Louvre  and  Trocadero  museums  may  also  be  seen 


450 


PRE-HIS  TORIC  A  M ERIC  A . 


fragments  remarkable  for  the  variety  of  the  combination  and 
the  natural  taste  of  the  workmen.  One  is  really  amazed  at 
the  results  which  they  obtained,  in  spite  of  the  obstacles  to 
industry  presented  by  their  form  of  government. 

The  rich  mines  of  Peru,  and  especially  those  of  Pasco,  so 
celebrated,  retain  traces  of  ancient  mining  operations,  the 
epoch  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  determine.  One  thing  is 
certain :  the  artizans  who  worked  the  precious  metals  had 
attained  the  skill  which  time  alone  can  give. 

Although  a  great  many  objects  have  disappeared  in  the 

crucible,  there  still  remain  enough 
bracelets,  pins,  tweezers,  and  vases, 
with  ornaments  in  relief  (fig.  197) 
to  prove  the  talents  of  their  jewel- 
lers. The  statuettes  are  even  more 
remarkable  ;  they  include  lizards, 
serpents  (fig.  196),  monkeys,  birds 
with  their  feathers,  fish  with  their 
scales,  trees  with  their  leaves ; 
modelled  some  in  relief,  others 
in  intaglio.  The  artist  did  not 
even  shrink  from  attempting  to 
represent  complete  groups.  We 
may  mention  a  child  lying  in  a 
hammcck,  on  which  a  serpent  coiled  round  a  tree  is  about  to 
fling  itself,  and  a  man  seated  between  two  women.  The  latter, 
which  belonged  to  Squier's  collection,  weighed  forty-nine 
ounces.  Unfortunately,  it  is  impossible  to  give  an  illustra- 
tion of  it.  If  it  is  true,  as  has  been  claimed,  that  the  Peru- 
vians were  ignorant  of  the  art  of  casting  metals,  the  only 
process  known  for  the  production  of  such  complicated  pieces 
was  an  amalgamation  of  gold  with  mercury,  which  latter 
metal  is  very  common  in  the  country,  and  known  to  the 
Indians  of  the  present  day.  The  paste  made  by  a  mixture 
of  the  two  is  very  plastic,  and  lends  itself  easily  to  model- 
ling ;  when  the  artist  had  finished  his  work,  he  volatilized 
the  mercury,  by  exposing  it  to  a  fierce  heat ;  the  gold  alone 


FIG.    195. — Silver  va>o  discov- 
ered at  Chnnu. 


PERU. 


451 


was  left,  and  simple  polishing  was  enough  to  obtain  the  de- 
sired result.  Cie^a  de  Leon  *  relates  that  the  working  of 
metals  was  a  speciality  of  the  men  of  Chimu,  and  adds  that 
after  the  submission  of  the  country  the  Inca  Yupanqui  car- 
ried off  to  Cuzco  the  best  workmen  of  the  town. 

We  must  also  refer  to  several  little  round  pieces  of  gold, 
silver,  or  copper,  pierced  with  a  hole,  and  bearing  on  one 
side  a  rough  impression  either  of  a  man  or  an  animal.  Were 
those  used  as  money?  There  is  nothing  to  justify  us 
in  supposing  that  these  men  had  invented  a  system  of  ex- 
change, unless  for  their  simple  wants ;  and  it  is  more 
probable  that  these  were  ornaments  resembling  those  of 


FIG.   196. — Silver  serpent. 

gold,    silver,    earthenware,    stone,    and    glass   found    under 
the  huacas  (fig.  197). 

Iron  appears  to  have  been  unknown  to  the  Peruvians  as  to 
the  other  inhabitants  of  America.  It  was  replaced  by  bronze, 
or  copper,  and  a  considerable  number  of  weapons,  tools,  im- 
plements, and  ornaments,  made  of  one  or  other  of  these  metals, 
have  been  picked  up.  The  copper  was  mixed  with  from  five 
to  ten  per  cent,  of  silver."  This  may  have  been  an  alloy,  or 
more  probably  a  natural  product  of  the  mine.  Some  writers 
nave  pretended  that  the  Peruvians  were  acquainted  with 

1  Cieca  de  Leon,  one  of  the  companions  of  Pizarro,  remained  for  seventeen 
years  in  Peru.  His  history  "  Primera  parte  de  la  chronica  del  Peru,"  was 
printed  at  Seville  in  1553  and  at  Antwerp  in  1554. 

*  We  have  mentioned  this  same  fact  with  regard  to  the  copper  extracted 
by  the  Mound  Builders  from  the  mines  of  Lake  Superior. 


452 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


a  mode  of  hardening  which  added  to  the  power  of  resist- 
ance of  copper.  None  of  the  objects  thus  far  discovered 
justify  this  assertion.  At  the  Madrid  exhibition  was  to 
be  seen  a  bronze  statuette  rather  more  than  six  inches  high, 
representing  a  man  with  his  legs  crossed,  seated  on  a 
tortoise,  and  his  arms  resting  on  a  tablet,  on  which  is  traced 
an  inscription.  This  statuette  was  taken  from  a  huaca 
at  the  foot  of  the  Andes. 


FIG.   197. — Beads  of  gold,  silver,  earthenware,  stone,  and  glass. 

The  spade  and  chisel  used  by  the  ancient  Peruvians  were 
of  the  form  still  retained  in  the  country.  The  celts  re- 
sembled the  stone  ones  of  Europe  ;  the  knives,  those  still  in 
use  amongst  French  saddlers.  Sometimes  the  tools  were 
more  clumsy ;  Darwin  speaks  of  having  seen  rough  stones, 
pierced  with  a  hole  to  receive  a  handle,  used  by  the  in- 
habitants of  Chili  to  till,  or  rather  to  scratch,  the  ground. 

The  weapons  found  are  generally  of  the  most  wretched 


PERU.  453 

description,  and  include  lance-points,1  javelins,  arrows, 
and  bronze  tomahawks.  Near  the  mines  of  Pasco  especially 
have  been  picked  up  hatchets  and  arrow-points  of  flint, 
obsidian,  diorite,  and  basalt,  and  stone  mortars  resembling 
those  of  California. 

The  Trocadero  museum  contains  several  stone  batons, 
which  have  been  supposed  to  be  insignia  of  rank,"  presenting 
a  curious  relationship  with  those  objects,  alleged  to  be 
of  that  character,  of  neolithic  times  in  Europe.  It  is  prob- 
able, however,  that  none  of  these  objects  had  any  such  pur- 
pose. The  idea  of  "  rank "  can  hardly  have  developed 
among  neolithic  men  any  more  than  among  the  present 
Eskimo.  Objects  obtained  from  the  Eskimo  of  Nunivak 
Island  by  Dall,  in  1874,  exactly  resemble  some  of  the 
so-called  batons  of  neolithic  man,  and  were  handles  for  skin 
scrapers,  or  snuff  pestles.  We  give  a  drawing  of  a  rod  (fig. 
198)  of  interesting  workmanship,8  with  seven  birds  sculptured 
along  it,  that  appear  to  be  climbing  toward  the  top,  which  is 
crowned  by  two  birds  said  to  be  pelicans.  We  may  also 
mention,  as  a  specimen  of  wood-work,  a  seat  upheld  by  two 
pumas,  found  at  Cuzco  (fig.  199),  and  some  four-legged 
stools  cut  in  a  single  piece  of  wood.  These  stools  figured  at 
the  Madrid  exhibition  ;  they  resemble  in  shape  the  seats 
represented  in  Mexican  pictographs.  Wood  was  also  used 
to  make  many  objects  in  daily  use.  For  instance,  several 
examples  of  tastefully  carved  combs  (fig.  200)  are  known. 
Such  combs  were  nearly  always  placed  in  the  huacas,  near 
the  dead. 

To  conclude  our  summary  of  all  relating  to  the  Peruvians, 
we  must  describe  the  Pintados  ;  such  is  the  name  given  to 
the  engravings  and  sculptures  met  with  upon  the  granite  rocks 
of  the  chain  of  the  Andes.4  These  represent  men,  some  of 

1  Squier  has  in  his  collection  a  lance-point  twenty  inches  long. 

1  It  is  remarkable  that  the  insignia  of  rank  have  invariably  developed  from  an 
ordinary  stick  or  club.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  sceptre  of  the  kings, 
the  crozier  of  the  bishop,  and  the  baton  of  the  marshal  of  France. 

1  Nature,  roth  June,  1882. 

4  Bollaert,  /.  c.,  p.  157.     "  Trans.  Ethn.  Soc,  of  London,"  1857. 


454 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


which  are  thirty  feet  high,  animals,  chiefly  dogs  and  llamas, 
plants  and  inanimate  objects.     One  block  of  granite  twelve 


FIG.  198. — Carved  rod  from  Peru. 


FlG.  199. — Seat  of  maguey  wood  found  at  Cuzco. 

feet  square  near  Macaya,  known  by  the  name  of  la  Picdra 
del  Leon,  is  loaded  with  very  ancient  sculptures.     The  most 


PERU. 


455 


\\\\\\\v\\\\\\\\\\\mvm^ 

v\\\\vm\v\\\\\v\\\m\W^ 


important  group  represents  a  struggle  between  a  man  and  a 
puma.1  On  another  rock  it  is  easy  to  make  out  a  puma. 
Near  the  little  town  of  Nepefi,  a  colossal  serpent  is  to  be 
seen ;  at  Caldera,  a  short  distance  from  Arequipa,  trees  and 
flowers.  At  the  Pintados  de  las  Rayas,  near  Noria,  it  is  no 
longer  animate  objects,  but  geometrical  figures,  such  as  cir- 
cles or  parallelograms,  that  are  met  with.  In  the  province  of 
Tarapaca,  considerable  surfaces  are  covered,  not  only  with 
figures  of  men  and  animals,  most  of  them  of  remarkable  exe- 
cution (fig.  201),  but  also 
with  characters,  which  ap- 
pear to  be  written  vertical- 
ly. The  lines  are  from 
twelve  to  eighteen  feet 
high,  and  each  character 
is  several  inches  in  depth. 
Near  Huara  half-effaced 
inscriptions  are  reported, 
and  between  Mendoza  and 
La  Punta,  Chili,  is  a  large 
pillar,  on  which  are  marks 
supposed  to  be  letters. 
Their  indefinite  character 
may  be  judged  from  the 
fact  that  they  have  been 
said  to  present  some  resem- 
blance With  Chinese  char-  Fl<:-  200. -Peruvian  comb. 
acters.9  Every  thing  relating  to  these  so-called  inscriptions  is 
very  vague,  very  uncertain,  and  does  not  justify  any  conclu- 
sion. 

I  am  disposed  to  attach  more  importance  to  the  discov- 
eries of  Professor  Liberani,  in  the  Santa  Maria  valley, 
Province  of  Catamarca,  in  the  Argentine  Republic.1  He  de- 
scribes figures  of  animate  objects  accompanied  by  reproduc- 
tions of  inanimate  objects,  geometrical  figures,  and  lines  of 

1  Bollaert,  /.  c.,  p.  102. 
1  Bollaert,  /.  c.,  p.  218. 
1  Arneghino  :  "La  Antiguadud  del  Hombre,"  vol.  I.,  p.  94. 


456 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


dots  differently  combined.  The  same  signs  are  met  with, 
and  this  is  a  fact  worthy  of  attention,  constantly  repeated 
and  always  in  a  similar  order.  Ameghino  considers  these 
inscriptions  to  indicate  a  complete  system  of  writing,  made 
up  partly  of  figures  and  symbolical  characters,  partly  of 
purely  phonetic  characters ;  and  he  is  even  disposed  to  ad- 
mit that  these  are  the  remains  of  ancient  Peruvian  writing, 
which  has  been  perpetuated  far  from  the  district  where  it 
first  came  into  existence.  According  to  Montesinos,"  this 
writing  was  proscribed  by  Pachacuti  III.,  one  of  the  fabulous 
predecessors  of  the  historic  Incas ;  he  even  had  an  amauta 
burned  for  having  dared  to  infringe  his  orders.8 


FIG.  201. — Peruvian  pictograph.     Province  of  Tarapaca. 

It  is  certain,  that  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  Peruvians 
were  acquainted  with  no  system  of  writing,  either  hiero- 
glyphic or  phonetic,  and  with  no  mode  of  numeration.  It  is  in 
the  highest  degree  incredible  that  a  system  of  writing  should 
have  been  so  utterly  lost  if  it  had  ever  existed.  For  the 

1  "  Mem.  hist,  sur  1'ancien  Perou,"  coll.  Ternaux-Compans,  Paris,  1849. 

"  Unode  los  reyes  del  Peru  prohibio  en  efecto  su  uso  bajo  las  penas  mas 
severas,  y  uno  de  sus  subditos  que  algunos  anos  mas  tarde  se  propuso  inventar 
un  nuevo  sistema  de  escritura  fu  quemado  vivo."  Ameghino,  /.  c.;  con- 
sult the  same  author's  "  Inscripciones  ante  colombianas  encontradas  en  la  Re- 
publica  Argentina,"  8°.  Brussels,  1880. 


PERU. 


457 


ordinary  purposes  of  life  they  used  quipos  (fig.  202),  or  strings 
of  varying  length,  on  which  were  knotted  a  certain  number 
of  threads.  The  color  of  the  threads  and  the  number  and 
distance  from  each  other  of  the  knots  had  a  significance 
sometimes  historic  and  sometimes  mathematical.1  Gar- 
cilasso  tell  us  that  the  quipos,  which  related  to  the  history 
of  the  Incas,  were  carefully  preserved  by  an  officer  called 
Quipo  Camayol,  literally  the  guardian  of  the  quipos.  The 
greater  number  were  destroyed  as  monuments  of  idolatry 


FIG.  2O2. — Fragment  of  a  quipo. 

by  some  fanatical  friars,  but  their  loss  is  not  important  to 
history,  as  neither  tradition  nor  study  enable  us  to  interpret 
those  still  remaining.  The  Indians,  however,  long  preserved, 
and  perhaps  still  retain,  this  system  of  secret  correspondence. 

1  Before  the  accession  of  the  Emperor  Fo-Fli  (3,300  B.  C.),  it  is  said  that  the 
Chinese  were  not  acquainted  with  writing  and  also  used  quipos.  In  the 
writings  of  Confucius  we  find  a  passage  which  bears  on  this  point.  "  The  men 
of  antiquity,"  he  says,  "  used  knotted  cords  to  convey  their  orders  ;  those  who 
succeeded  them  substituted  signs  or  figures  for  these  cords."  J  affray  :  Nature, 
1876,  vol.  II.,  p.  405. 


458  PRE-HISTORTC  AMERICA. 

A  great  revolt  against  the  Spaniards  was  organized  in  1792. 
As  was  found  out  later  the  revolt  had  been  organized  by 
means  of  messengers,  carrying  a  piece  of  wood  in  which 
were  enclosed  threads,  the  ends  of  which  formed  red,  black, 
blue,  or  white  fringes.  The  black  thread  had  four  knots, 
which  signified'  that  the  messenger  had  started  from  Val- 
dura,  the  residence  of  the  chief  of  the  conspiracy,  four  days 
after  full  moon.  The  white  thread  had  ten  knots,  which 
signified  that  the  revolt  would  break  out  ten  days  after  the 
arrival  of  the  messenger.  The  person  to  whom  the  keeper 
was  sent  had  in  his  turn  to  make  a  knot  in  the  red  thread 
if  he  agreed  to  join  the  confederates ;  in  the  red  and  blue 
threads,  on  the  contrary,  if  he  refused.  It  was  by  means  of 
these  quipos  that  the  Incas  transmitted  their  instructions ; 
on. all  the  roads  starting  from  the  capital,  at  distances  rarely 
exceeding  five  miles,  rose  tambos,  or  stations  for  the  chasquis 
or  couriers  who  went  from  one  post  to  another.  The  orders 
of  the  Inca  thus  became  disseminated  with  great  rapidity ; 
those  which  emanated  directly  from  him  were  marked  with 
a  red  thread  of  the  royal  llantu,  and  nothing,  as  historians 
assure  us,  could  equal  the  respect  with  which  these  messages 
were  received.1 

This  very  imperfect  mode  of  communication  presented 
many  other  drawbacks,  when  the  preservation  of  historic 
facts  and  their  transmission  to  posterity  was  in  question. 
From  this  point  of  view,  it  was  certainly  very  inferior  to  the 
pictographs  of  the  Mexicans,  to  the  hieroglyphic  system  em- 
ployed in  Yucatan  and  Chiapas,  and  even  to  the  clumsy 
representations  of  the  North  Americans ;  it  offers  a  strange 
contrast  with  the  progress  in  many  directions  characterizing 
the  Peruvians. 

We  cannot  conclude  our  account  of  Peru  without  again 
laying  stress  on  the  admiration  with  which  the  historian  and 
philosopher  are  inspired  in  studying  an  organization  so 
strange  and  a  culture  so  advanced  as  that  of  the  population 
who  braved  the  severe  climate  of  the  Andes  and  the  burning 

1  Prescott :  "  History  of  the  Conquest  of  Peru,"  p.  29. 


PERU.  459 

sun  of  the  Pacific  coast.  We  shall  recur  again  to  the  origin 
of  this  civilization,  but,  before  touching  that  question,  we 
must  complete  our  work  by  studying  the  other  peoples  of 
South  America. 

On  the  lofty  table-lands  which  form  the  chain  of  the 
Andes,  in  N.  Lat.  4°,  at  an  elevation  of  nearly  ten  thousand 
feet,  lived  the  Chibchas.1  This  was  a  strong  and  courageous, 
agricultural  and  industrious  race,  individual  in  character,  and 
possessing  an  original  culture.  Isolated  in  the  narrow  area 
which  formed  their  country,  they  knew  how  to  maintain 
their  independence  against  their  more  powerful  native 
neighbors,  who  resembled  them  in  manners,  customs,  arts, 
and  worship.  After  the  Spanish  conquest,  however,  the  Chib- 
cha  country,  which  consisted  only  of  a  territory  forty-five 
leagues  long  by  twelve  to  fifteen  wide,  became  the  province 
of  Cundinamarca,  and  was  included  in  the  viceroyalty  of 
New  Grenada.  Since  1861,  the  state  of  Cundinamarca  has 
formed  part  of  the  confederation  which  has  taken  the  name 
of  the  United  States  of  Colombia. 

Less  advanced  perhaps,  than  the  Aztecs  or  the  Peruvians, 
the  Chibchas  were  yet  able  to  lay  out  and  pave  roads,  to 
span  their  water-courses  with  bridges,  to  build  temples 
with  columns  to  their  gods,  to  carve  statues,  to  engrave 
figures  on  stone,  to  weave  and  dye  cotton  and  wool,  to  adorn 
their  woven  tissues  with  varied  patterns,  and  to  work  in 
wood,  stone,  and  the  metals.  Their  pottery  resembled  that 
of  other  people  of  America ;  their  vessels  are  generally 
formed  of  three  super-posed  layers ;  the  central  layer  is 
black,  whilst  the  internal  and  external  ones  are  of  finer 
earth  and  lighter  color.  The  ornaments  of  the  Chibchas 

1  Piedrahita  :  "Hist.  gen.  de  la  conquista  del  Nuevo  Reyno  de  Granada," 
Madrid,  1688.  Humboldt  :  "  Voyage  aux  regions  equinoctiales,"  etc.,  and  "  Vues 
des  Cordilleres."  J.  Acosta  :  "  Compendio  hist,  del  descubrimiento  y  colonisa- 
cion  de  la  Nueva  Granada,"  Paris,  1848.  Bollaert :  "Ant.  Ethn.  and  other 
Researches  in  New  Granada,"  London,  1860.  Uricochoea  :  "  Mem.  sobre  las 
antiguedades  Neo-Granadinas,"  Berlin,  n.  d.  Nature,  1877,  vol.  I.,  p.  359. 
"  Isographia  fisica  y  politica  de  los  Estados  Unidos  de  Colombia,"  Bogota,  2 
vols.,  1862-3.  Dr.  Jaffray :  "Voyage  a  la  Nouvelle  Grenade,"  "La  Tour 
du  Monde,"  vol.  XXIV.,  XXV.,  XXVI. 


460  PRE-tnSTORIC  AMERICA. 

were  collars  made  of  shells  which  came  from  the  coasts 
of  the  Pacific,  more  than  two  hundred  leagues  off ;  gold, 
stone,  and  silver  pendants,  .pearls,  and  emeralds.  Their 
wealth  was  considerable,  and  chroniclers  relate,  that  in  the 
first  few  months  succeeding  the  conquest  theconquistadores 
collected  spoil  of  which  the  value  exceeded  thirty  million 
francs.1  If  these  figures  are  not  exaggerated  they  are  really 
enormous  for  the  time  and  country. 

We  know  very  little  about  this  people,  who  are  looked 
upon  as  one  of  the  authors  of  the  ancient  civilization  of 
South  America.  Their  very  language  has  disappeared,*  and 
the  name  by  which  we  know  them  dates  from  the  time 
of  the  Spaniards,3  who  borrowed  it  from  Chibchachimi,  one 
of  the  chief  gods  of  the  country,  the  protector  of  agricultur- 
alists and  goldsmiths.  The  traditions  relating  to  the 
Chibchas  are  of  little  importance.  According  to  Chibcha 
legend  the  moon  was  the  wife  of  Bochica,  who  personified 
the  sun  ;  she  did  as  much  harm  to  men  as  he  did  good, 
and  Bochica,  irritated  against  her,  condemn-ed  her  to  give 
light  to  the  earth  only  during  the  night.4  They  called  them- 
selves aborigines,  born  before  the  moon  was  created,  on  the 
tableland  where  Santa  F6  de  Bogota  now  rises.  They  wan- 
dered about  naked,  without  laws  and  without  culture,  until 
a  stranger,  Bochica,  came  from  distant  regions  and  taught 
them  the  art  of  clothing  themselves,  building  houses,  and  liv- 
ing in  society.  The  legends  relating  to  Bochica  present  a 
curious  analogy  with  those  about  Quetzacoatl  or  Manco- 
Capac,  and,  by  one  of  those  coincidences  of  which  ethnology 
affords  so  many  examples,  the  mythical  civilizer  of  Colom- 
bia had  something  in  common  alike  with  the  reformer  of 
Buddhism  and  the  first  Inca  of  Peru. 

'Acosta,  /.  c.,  pp.  123  and  126. 

*  In  1871  Uricochcea  published  a  Chibcha  grammar.  This  language,  he  tells 
us,  can  only  be  studied  now  through  two  others,  which  are  probably  only 
dialects  of  it,  that  of  the  Turievos,  a  people  who  lived  north  of  Bogota,  and 
that  of  the  Itocos,  who  lived  near  the  celebrated  emerald  mines  of  Muzo. 

3  The  Chibchas   are  supposed  to  have   called  themselves   Muyscas,  a  word 
signifying  men  in  their  language. 

4  Desjardins  :   "  Le  Pe'rou  avant  la  conquete  Espagnole,"  pp.  44  and  102. 


PERU.  4<>I 

Besides  their  own  particular  gods,  such  as  Chibchachimi  or 
Nehmquitiba,  the  Chibchas  also  adored  the  sun  and  the 
moon  ;  they  offered  human  victims  to  the  sun,  but  only  on 
rare  occasions.  One  of  these  occasions  was  the  commence- 
ment of  each  cycle  of  fifteen  years,  which  formed  the  basis 
of  their  astronomical  calculations ;  and  with  a  cruelty  but 
little  in  accordance  with  their  habitual  manners,  the  victim 
was  often  chosen  several  years  beforehand,  and  prepared 
by  a  long  initiation  for  the  death  which  awaited  him.  The 
lofty  summits  of  the  mountains,  the  water-courses,  and 
the  lakes  were  dedicated  to  their  divinities.  Among  the 
lakes,  that  of  Quatavita  was  the  most  venerated,  and  it  is 
related  that  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  the  inhabitants 
flung  into  its  waters  all  their  treasures  that  they  might 
not  become  the  prey  of  the  conqueror,  the  report  of  whose 
avarice  had  already  reached  the  Chibchas.  This  legend, 
which  does  not  agree  at  all  with  the  account  of  the  immense 
sums  drawn  by  the  Spanish  from  New  Grenada,  has  shown 
great  vitality.  At  various  times  the  tapadas  have  en- 
endeavored  to  recover  these  riches  but  the  results  have 
by  no  means  corresponded  with  the  hopes  of  the  explorers  ; 
in  1562,  one  alligator,  two  monkeys,  and  thirteen  frogs 
of  gold  were  taken  from  the  water ;  but  more  recent 
attempts  have  yielded  but  a  few  statuettes  of  no  value. 

Not  far  from  Tunja,  in  the  state  of  Boyaca,  thirteen  col- 
umns, four  or  five  yards  high,  still  stand  ;  a  little  farther  off, 
near  some  extensive  ruins,  rise  nineteen  shorter  columns ' ; 
numerous  carved  stones  covered  with  ornaments  are  scat- 
tered all  over  the  coast  for  a  distance  of  more  than  two 
miles.  It  is  supposed  that  this  was  the  town  of  Sogomuxi, 
and  the  temple,  of  which  the  columns  are  relics,  would  be 
that  of  Nehmquitiba,  which  was  destroyed  by  Quesada. 

Although  belonging  to  one  race,  the  Chibchas  do  not 
appear  to  have  formed  a  national  body.  Some  obeyed  a 

J"  Bull.  Soc.  Ge'og.,"  1847.  Travellers  differ  as  to  the  number  of  columns  still 
standing.  See  Jaffray :  "  Viaje  a  nueva  Granada."  Ameghino  :  "La  An- 
tiguedad  del  Hombre,"  vol.  I.,  p.  103. 


462  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

chief  called  Zippa,  who  commanded  at  Bogota ;  the  chief 
of  the  other  faction  bore  the  title  of  Zoque,  and  lived  at 
Hunsa,  the  Tunja  of  to-day.  The  authority  of  these  chiefs 
was  as  despotic  as  that  of  the  Incas,  and  no  one  dared  to 
oppose  their  will.  The  Zippa  could  only  have  one  legiti- 
mate wife,  but  was  allowed  any  number  of  concubines 
(Thiguyes).  None  of  his  sons  inherited  the  paternal  power; 
but,  in  accordance  with  a  custom  which  still  prevails  in  the 
heart  of  Africa,  it  was  transmitted  to  the  eldest  son  of  the 
sister. 

As  soon  as  the  Zippa  was  dead,  his  viscera  were  taken  out 
and  replaced  by  sweet-smelling  resin ;  the  body  was  then 
placed  in  a  coffin  of  palm-wood,  ornamented  inside  and  out 
with  sheets  of  gold.  This  coffin  was  placed  in  a  sepulchre, 
the  situation  of  which  was  secret ;  and  this  secret  has  been 
so  well  kept  that  to  this  day  the  tombs,  so  eagerly  sought 
after,  have  never  been  discovered.  Such  is  the  account, 
bearing  the  impress  of  their  habitual  exaggeration,  which 
we  borrow  from  the  Spanish  writers.  It  is  probable  that  the 
cave  situated  not  far  from  Bogota,  and  which  has  yielded 
such  an  ample  harvest  of  jewels  of  gold  and  silver,  or  per- 
haps that  near  Tunja,  where  rows  of  mummies  clothed  in 
rich  garments  were  to  be  seen,  was  really  the  spot  dedi- 
cated to  the  burial  of  the  Zippas  and  the  Zoques.  With  the 
chiefs  were  interred  their  weapons,  their  garments,  the  insig- 
nia of  their  rank,  and  even  those  of  their  favorite  concubines. 
In  all  the  tombs,  without  exception,  we  find  the  objects  that 
had  been  used  in  daily  life,  the  professional  implements,  and 
jars  filled  with  chicha.  For  these  men,  as  for  the  greater 
number  of  the  native  people  of  America,  the  life  which 
began  after  death  was  to  be  a  continuation  of  that  lived 
upon  earth. 

The  laws  of  the  Chibchas  were  no  less  severe  than  those 
of  the  Aztecs  or  the  Peruvians.  Violation  and  homicide 
were  punished  with  death  ;  the  thief  incurred  the  penalty  of 
the  whip.  Sometimes  the  penalties  inflicted  were  more 
original ;  he  who  showed  cowardice  in  war  was  dressed  like 


PERU.  463 

a  woman,  and  made  to  do  female  work.  The  woman  ac- 
cused of  adultery  had  to  swallow  a  certain  quantity  of  red 
pepper ;  if  she  confessed  her  fault,  she  was  pitilessly  put  to 
death ;  but  if  she  could  stand  the  ordeal,  her  husband  had 
to  make  public  apologies  to  her. 

These  men  had  no  cattle  of  any  kind ;  they  do  not  appear 
even  to  have  known  how  to  make  use  of  llamas.  Their  food 
consisted  of  honey,  which  was  very  abundant  on  the  slopes 
of  the  mountains,  maize,  and  potatoes,  which  they  obtained 
by  cultivating  the  earth  with  wooden  implements,  and 
watering  it  frequently  by  means  of  irrigating  canals.  Their 
houses  rose  in  the  midst  of  circular  enclosures  (cercadas) 
often  defended  by  watch-towers.  They  were  built  of  wood 
and  clay  moistened  with  water ;  the  roof  was  conical,  and 
covered  with  reed  mats.  The  openings  were  closed  with 
interlaced  rushes. 

Primitive  as  their  buildings  and  their  mode  of  life  appear, 
the  Chibchas  were  acquainted  with  bronze,  copper,  tin,  lead, 
gold,  and  silver,  but  not  with  iron.  They  were  very  .skilful 
in  the  use  of  the  metals  just  enumerated,  and  their  chief  oc- 
cupation was  the  fabrication  of  gold  and  silver  objects.  In 
the  Saint  Germain  Museum  may  be  seen  interesting  speci- 
mens of  Chibcha  art  (fig.  203).  M.  Uricoechea  has  a  still 
more  remarkable  collection,  amongst  the  contents  of  which 
we  must  mention  two  golden  masks  of  the  human  face, 
larger  than  life,  and  hundreds  of  little  statuettes  repre- 
senting men,  monkeys,  and  frogs.  The  last-named  are 
numerous  throughout  New  Granada,  from  which  we  may 
gather  that  the  veneration  of  the  Muyscas  for  water-courses 
extended  to  the  batrachians  peopling  them. 

The  Chibchas  appear  to  have  carried  on  an  extensive  trade 
in  the  various  objects  the}'  manufactured  ;  they  also  ex- 
ported to  their  neighbors  the  rock  salt  which  abounded  in 
their  territories,  and  in  return  they  received  the  cereals 
which  the  poverty  of  their  soil  rendered  indispensable  to 
them.  They  are  said  to  have  invented  a  coinage  to  facili- 
tate these  exchanges,  and  that  it  was  for  this  purpose  that 


464 


r RE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


were  made  certain  peculiar  little  gold  discs ;  it  is  more  prob- 
able that  these  were  ornaments,  for  nothing  that  we  know  of 
the  social  state  of  the  people  of  South  America  justifies  us 
in  supposing  that  they  understood  the  use  of  money. 


FIG.  203. — Chibcha  weapons  and  jewels.     (Saint  Germain  Museum.) 

Monuments,  except  the  columns  already  mentioned,  are 
rare  in  the  Chibcha  country,  and  we  can  enumerate  them 
rapidly.  A  stone  is  mentioned,  probably  intended  for  sac- 
rifices, and  upheld  by  caryatides  ;  a  sculptured  jaguar  at  the 


PERU.  465 

entrance  to  a  cave  near  Neyba,  and  further  on  some  gigantic 
llamas.  Humboldt  mentions,  at  the  entrance  to  the  Muysca 
country,  between  2°  and  4°  N.  Lat.,  granite  or  syenite  rocks, 
covered  with  colossal  figures  of  crocodiles  and  tigers. 
They  look  as  if  they  were  intended  to  defend  the  representa- 
tions of  the  sun  and  moon  accompanying  them.  Ameghino 
also  speaks '  of  hieroglyphics  in  New  Granada,  and  perhaps 
we  must  also  attribute  to  the  Chibchas  two  columns  of  great 
height,  covered  with  sculpture,  situated  at  the  junction  of 
the  Carare  and  Magdalena.  They  are  the  object  of  the  su- 
perstitious veneration  of  the  natives.11 

Every  day,  so  to  speak,  brings  new  facts  which  add  to  our 
knowledge.  We  must  not  omit  to  mention  the  curious 
pictographs  recently  discovered  in  the  valleys  of  Bogota, 
Tunga,  and  Cauca,  which  appear  to  be  a  roughly  outlined 
map  of  the  country,  in  which,  however,  the  nearest  pueblos 
can  be  made  out.' 

At  every  turn  South  America  presents  vestiges  of  a  van- 
ished race,  of  a  culture  now  lost ;  and  we  are  always  com- 
pelled to  one  conclusion  as  to  our  absolute  powerlessness  to 
decide  on  the  origin  or  cause  of  the  decadence  of  these 
races,  now  represented  by  a  few  miserable  savages,  without 
a  past,  as  without  a  future. 

In  no  region  of  the  globe  has  nature  been  more  prodigal 
than  in  the  vast  districts  stretching  from  Guiana  to  Uruguay, 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  foremost  spurs  of  the  Andes,  form- 
ing the  empire  of  Brazil.  The  fertility  of  the  soil,  under  the 
double  influence  of  heat  and  moisture,  is  wonderful  ;  forest 
trees  grow  in  great  variety  everywhere  ;  valuable  medical 
plants  spring  up  in  profusion  which  are  not  to  be  met 
with  in  any  other  climate  ;  and  vegetables,  good  for  food,  or 
fruits  pleasant  to  the  palate  of  man,  with  flowers  of  the  most 
brilliant  colors.  Fifteen  thousand  vegetable  species  peculiar 
to  Brazil  have  already  been  recognized.  Agassiz,  telling  of 

1 "  En  Nueva  Granado  las    inscripciones  geroglificas    se  encuentran    a  cado 
paso."     "  La  Ant.  del  Hombre,"  vol.  I.,  p.  92. 

1  Zamora  :   "  Hist,  de  la  Prov.  del  Nuevo  Reino  de  Granada." 

1  Bastian  :   "  Zeitschrift  der  Gesellschaft  fur  Erdkunde,"  Berlin,  1878. 


466  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

his  memorable  expedition  to  the  Amazon,  in  1865  and  1866, 
adds:  "An  empire  might  esteem  itself  rich  in  anyone  of 
the  sources  of  industry  which  abound  in  this  valley,  and  yet 
the  greater  part  of  it  rots  on  the  ground,  and  goes  to  form  a 
little  more  river-mud,  or  tinges  the  water  on  the  shores 
of  which  these  manifold  products  die  and  decompose." ' 
The  fauna  is  no  less  rich  than  the  flora;  virgin  forests, 
the  magnificence  of  which,  according  to  travellers,  baffles 
description,  are  filled  with  monkeys  and  feline  animals, 
tapirs,  peccaries,  and  birds  of  brilliant  plumage.  The 
abundance  of  fish  in  the  streams  and  rivers  is  no  less  re- 
markable ;  in  fact,  the  Brazilian  ichthyology  is  so  •  rich 
that,  in  his  exploration  of  the  Amazon,  Agassiz  was  able 
to  class  three  hundred  new  species.  The  pirarucu  (Sudis 
gigas),  which  the  natives  take  with  the  lance  when  it 
comes  to  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  the  sea-turtle 
alone,  would  suffice  for  the  nourishment  of  a  large  fish- 
eating  population.2 

The  barbarism  of  man  presents  a  strange  contrast  with 
the  riches  of  nature.  Whilst  powerful  and  industrious  peo- 
ple, with  regular  government,  laws,  and  towns,  flourished 
upon  the  sandy  coasts  of  the  Pacific  and  on  the  lofty  table- 
lands of  the  Andes,  at  heights  where  cold  and  hunger  were 
formidable  enemies,  the  Portuguese  found  in  the  fertile  dis- 

1  "A Journey  in  Brazil,"  Boston,  1868,  p.  510. 

*  Prince  Max  de  Neuwied  :  "  Reise  nach  Bresilien,"  3  vol.,  4°,  Frankfurt- 
am-Main,  1820.  A.  de  St.  Hilaire  :  "Voyage  dans  les  provinces  de  Rio  de 
Janeiro  et  de  Minas  Gerae's."  F.  Denis  :  "  Le  Bresil,  Univers  Pittoresque," 
Paris,  1837.  F.  de  Castelnau  :  "  Exp.  dans  les  parties  centrales  de  1'Ame'rique 
du  Sud,  de  1843  et  1847,"  6  vol.,  8°.  A.  de  Varnhagen  :  "  Hist.  Geral  do 
Brazil,"  Madrid  and  Rio  de  Janeiro,  1855-7.  Dr.  T.  Waitz  :  "  Anthropologie 
der  Naturvolker,"  vol.  III.,  Leipzig,  1862.  C.  de  Martius  :  "  Beitrage  zur 
Ethnographic  und  Sprachenkunde  Amerikas  zumal  Brasiliens,"  Leipzig,  1867- 
72.  Marcoy  (St.  Cricq) :  "Voyage  a  travers  l'Amerique  du  Sud,  de  1'Ocean 
Pacifique  a  1'Ocean  Atlantique,"  Paris,  1868.  R.  Burton:  "Highlands  of 
Brazil,"  London,  1868.  Hartt :  "Geology  and  Physical  Geography  of 
Brazil,"  Boston,  1870.  Pompeu  de  Souza  :  "  Compendio  de  Geographia  geral 
e  especial  do  Brazil."  Lacerda  and  Peixotto  :  "  Contrilnupoes  arao  pestudo 
anthropologico  das  Ra9as  indigenas  do  Brazil."  "  Archives  do  Museo  Nacional," 
Rio  de  Janeiro. 


PERU. 

tricts  of  Brazil  but  a  scattered  population,  steeped  in  the 
saddest  degradation,'  and  where  cannibalism  has  continued 
to  exist  to  our  own  day.2 

This  native  population  belonged  to  the  race  called 
Guarani  by  the  Spaniards  and  Tupi  by  the  Portuguese.  This 
was  the  most  prolific  race  in  South  America."  We  meet 
with  it  in  the  Antilles,  in  Uruguay,  in  Guiana,  and  as  far  as 
Bolivia.  The  skin  of  the  Guaranis  was  a  shade  less  dark 
than  that  of  the  Aymaras  or  the  Qquichuas  ;  they  were  of 
more  robust  and  vigorous  constitution ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  their  character  was  more  violent,  and  their  intelligence 
was  less  marked,  and  above  all,  less  susceptible  of  progress. 

Dr.  Crevaux,  of  whose  murder  by  the  Tobas  we  have 
just  heard,  and  whose  death  is  a  great  loss  to  science,  noted 
important  analogies  between  the  languages  of  Guiana,  the 
Upper  Amazon,  the  Antilles,  and  that  of  the  ancient  inhabi- 
tants of  the  bay  of  Rio  de  Janeiro.  This  is  a  weighty  fact 
in  support  of  the  opinion  that  a  single  race  peopled  all  the 
Atlantic  coasts  of  America.4  But  this  race  has  been  pro- 

1  Varnhagen  estimated  the  number  of  natives  at  the  time  of  the  Portuguese 
conquest  at  about  a  million.  The  different  tribes  which  have  remained  in  a 
savage  state  may  now  amount  up  altogether  to  five  hundred  thousand  souls. 
The  rest  are  merged  in  the  population  of  the  country.  There  are  the  Capufos, 
children  of  negro  and  Indian  women  ;  the  Afamelucos,  or  Curibocos,  children 
of  white  men  and  Indian  women  ;  and  the  Mulattos,  of  white  and  black  paren- 
tage. The  subdivisions,  as  the  generation  succeed  each  other,  are  infinite. 

a  We  have  already  said  that  all,  men,  women,  and  children,  wandered  about 
in  a  state  of  complete  nudity  ;  in  some  tribes,  however,  we  find  earthenware 
"  fig-leaves,"  or  tangas,  used  for  covering  the  sexual  parts.  These  tangas  are 
of  very  fine  clay,  baked  in  the  fire.  The  concave  side  retains  its  natural  color, 
but  the  convex  is  enamelled  with  white  clay,  and  on  some  of  them  a  face  is 
represented.  Hartt,  "  Archives  of  the  National  Museum  of  Rio  de  Janeiro," 
vol.  I. 

*  The  Galibis,  who  are  met  with  in  French  Guiana,  sprung  from  a  source 
probably  allied  to  the  Tupis,  and  which,  according  to  Martiusl  gave  birth,  by  a 
cross  with  the  original  people  of  the  Antilles,  to  the  redoubtable  race  of  the 
Caribs.  D'Orbigny  :  "  L'  Homme  Americain,"  vol.  II.,  p.  268.  M.  Girard 
de  Rialle  has  made  the  Galibis  very  well  known  by  his  account  of  several 
natives  of  the  country  who  were  to  be  seen  in  the  Jardin  d'  Acclimatation. 
(Nature,  Aug.  19,  1882). 

4  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  1881,  p.  564. 


468 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


foundly  modified  by  prior  or  later  intermixtures.  Some 
people  present  a  very  marked  Asiatic  type ;  their  figure  is 
squat  and  thick-set ;  their  faces  are  flat,  the  nose  is  low,  the 
cheek-bones  are  prominent ;  the  eyes  are  of  oblique  shape, 
the  skin  is  yellow,  the  beard  thin,  and  the  hair  black,  long 
and  smooth.  We  meet  with  these  same  characteristics  at 
the  present  day  amongst  the  Aimores,1  to  whom  the  Portu- 
guese have  given  the  name  of  Botocudos*  on  account  of  the 
large  round  piece  of  wood  (botoque)  or  labret  which  they 
are  in  the  habit  of  introducing  into  an  artificial  aperture  in 
the  lower  lip  (fig.  204.) 

These  people  were  broken  up 
into  innumerable  tribes,  who, 
notwithstanding  their  common 
origin,  were  constantly  at  war 
with  each  other.  Side  by  side 
with  the  Tupis,  the  Portuguese 
found  the  Tapuyas  and  the 
Tupinambas,  who  occupied  the 
whole  coast,  from  the  island  of 
St.  Vincent  to  that  of  Maranhao, 
with  others,  the  enumeration  of 
whom  would  be  of  no  interest. 
Were  these  the  most  ancient 
people  of  Brazil  ?  Those,  for 
instance,  whose  bones  have  been 
found  in  the  caves  of  the  province  of  Minas-Geraes  ?  We 
are  justified  in  doubting  it,  and  although  the  type  of  the 
men  of  Lagoa-Santa  was  still  met  with  at  the  time  of  the 

'Olfers,  Eschwege,  "  Journal  v.  Bresilien,"  vol.  II.,  p.  194.  According  to 
Lacerda  and  Peixotto  ("  Arch,  of  the  Nat.  Mus.  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,"  vol.  I.)  it 
would  be  the  Botocudos  that  are  most  nearly  allied  to  the  primitive  race 
of  Brazil. 

*  Rey  describes  the  skull  of  the  Botocudos  as  characterized  by  the  promi- 
nence of  the  glabella  and  of  the  supraciliary  ridges,  by  the  depression  of  the 
root  of  the  nose,  the  absence  of  frontal  eminences,  the  simplicity  of  the  sutures, 
the  spherical  form  of  the  occipital,  and  by  the  cymbicephalic  shape  of  the  cra- 
nial cavity.  The  cephalic  index  varies  between  71.67,  and  74.86.  Bordier, 
"Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  1881,  p.  566. 


JP 


FlG.  204. — Botocudo. 


PRKT.  469 

European  invasion,1  Quatrefages  believes  that  the  barbarous 
Guaranis  had  either  as  predecessors  or  contemporaries  a 
more  civilized  race.  If  we  admit  this  latter  hypothesis,  it 
would  be  to  this  unknown  race  that  we  must  attribute  the 
few  megaliths,  and  the  rock-paintings  and  engravings  so  fre- 
quently met  with  in  Brazil. 

Herkman,  sent  into  the  interior  of  the  province  of  Per- 
nambuco  by  the  prince  of  Nassau-Siegen,  during  the  Dutch 
domination,  mentioned  two  perfectly  round  stones,  the 
larger  six  feet  in  diameter,  placed  one  upon  the  other.*  This 
is  one  of  those  structures  which  characterize  the  infancy  of 
culture  in  all  societies.  It  has  been  taken  for  an  altar,  on 
account  of  the  accumulation  of  stones  about  it,  which,  in 
accordance  with  an  almost  universal  custom,  bear  witness  to 
the  veneration  of  the  natives.  In  several  places  in  the  inte- 
rior of  the  country  explorers  have  met  with  tumuli,  some- 
times of  stones,  sometimes  of  earth.  In  all,  excavations 
have  yielded  bones,  and  with  the  bones  weapons,  ornaments 
of  chert  or  hard  rock,  crystals,  pieces  of  coral  and  jutah  *  root. 

The  solitudes  of  Para  and  Piauhy  contain  intaglio 
sculptures,  the  work  of  vanished  races.  These  represent 
animals,  birds,  and  men  in  the  most  varied  attitudes  ;  some 
of  whom  have  the  body  tattooed,  and  others  are  crowned 
with  feathers ;  whilst  arabesques  and  scrolls  complete  ihe 
picture.4 

Philippe  Rey  mentions,  at  the  Sierra  da  Onca,  on  the 
rocks  overlooking  the  right  bank  of  the  Rio  Doce,  the  occur- 
rence of  drawings  in  red  ochre,  sometimes  singly  and  some- 
times grouped  without  apparent  order  (fig.  205).  Is  this 
an  inscription,  and  must  we  attribute  to  these  drawings  any 
meaning  beyond  the  caprice  of  the  artist  ?  We  should  not 
venture  to  say  ;  for  all  interpretation  appears  to  be  impos- 

1  De  Quatrefages,  Cong.  Anth.  de  Moscou,  1877. 

"F.  Denis,  "  Le  Bresil,"p.  252. 

3  Hymencea  curbarii.  C.  Rath,  "  Revista  do  Institute  historico,  geogra- 
phico,  ethnographico  do  Brazil,"  1871. 

4Debret,  "  Voy.  pitt.  et  hist,  au  Bresil  depuis  1816  jusqu'en  1831."  Paris, 
1879. 


47°  PRF.-fffSTORIC  AMERICA. 

sible.1  In  the  province  of  Ceara  are  rocks,  reminding  us,  by 
the  engravings  with  which  they  are  covered,  of  those 
in  Scandinavia  (fig.  206).  A.  de  Saint-Hilaire  mentions 
similar  ones  on  the  rocks  of  Tijuco ;  Koster  speaks  of  a 
boat  sculptured  in  intaglio,5  and  every  thing  justifies  us  in 
hoping  for  new  discoveries  as  travellers  are  able  to  penetrate 


* 


FIG.  205. — Engravings  on  rock  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rio  Doce. 

more  freely  into  the  virgin  forests,  savannahs,  and  deserts, 
making  up  a  great  part  of  the  Brazilian  territory. 

On  the  north,  the  zone  of  the  so-called  Piedras  Pintadas, 
stretches  into  the  Guianas,  fronvthe  Paracaima  mountains  to 
Uruana.  These  drawings,  according  to  Humboldt,  date  from 
different  periods  and  are  the  work  of  very  different  people. 

1  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  1879,  p.  732. 

1  "Voyage  dans  la  partie  septentrionale  du  Bresil  depuis  1809  jusqu'en  1815." 


PERU. 


471 


But  who  were  these  people  ?  The  illustrious  German  trav- 
eller adds  nothing  to  make  them  known  to  us.  These  Pied- 
ras  Pintadas  are  met  with  in  the  south  as  in  the  north,  in 
Chili  and  in  Peru,  as  well  as  in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico, 
presenting  every  where  a  remarkable  analogy  with  each 
other.  This  constant  resemblance,  not  met  with  to  a  simi- 
lar degree  among  any  other  peoples  of  the  globe,  is  a  racial 
characteristic,  difficult  to  disregard.  Ameghino  reproduces  a 
great  many  inscriptions,  which  he  discovered  within  the 
bounds  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  which  may  be  com- 
pared with  those  of  Brazil ' ;  they  appear  to  be  more  com- 
plicated, as  may  be  seen  by  that  of  which  we  give  a  drawing 
fig.  207);  their  art 
is  of  a  somewhat 
more  d  ev  e  1  o  p  e  d 
character,  and  they 
doubtless  date  from 
a  more  recent  pe- 
riod. 

It  is  difficult  to 
attribute  the  draw- 
ings of  Brazil  or  of 
Uruguay  to  tribes 
of  the  Guarani  race, 
though  the  case  of 
the  African  Bushmen  might  justify  us  in  supposing  that 
savages,  even  as  degraded  as  these  are  represented  to  have 
been,  may  have  had  sufficient  intelligence  to  rudely  repro- 
duce on  stone  the  objects  which  struck  their  imagination. 
The  same  remark,  however,  will  hardly  apply  to  a  subterra- 
nean passage  of  considerable  length,  excavated  in  very  com- 
pact sandstone,  which  excavations  have  lately  brought  to 
light. 

On  penetrating  into  el  Palacio,  as  this  subterranean  pas- 

1  "  Puro  los  objetos  mas  notables,  creo  son  las  numerosas  inscripcionas 
sobre  rocas  que  han  descubierto  en  diversos  puntos  de  la  provincia."  "  La 
Antiguedad  del  Hombre,"  vol.  I.,  p.  541,  figs.  353  to  364. 


FIG.  206. — Inscription  on  rock  at  Ceara. 


472 


PRE-HIS  TORIC  A  ME  RICA . 


sage  is  called,  we  are  astonished  at  the  sight  of  columns 
placed  at  regular  distances,  supporting  a  regular  vaulted 
roof,  and  all  converging  toward  a  common  centre.1  Exca- 
vations, which  have  thus  far  been  very  superficial,  have  only 
yielded  a  few  agate  arrow-points;  now  the  nearest  known 
deposit  of  agate  is  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Negro,  so  that 
it  may  probably  have  been  from  there  that  these  arrow- 
points  were  derived.  There  is  no  serious  tradition  con- 


FlG.  207. — Rock  covered  with  engravings.     Province  of  Catamarca. 

nected  with  these  structures,  so  that  we  will  content  our- 
selves with  mentioning  them,  and  adding  that  our  ignorance 
is  complete  as  to  their  date  and  origin. 

We  must  say  the  same  for  the  pottery  collected  in  large 
quantities  in  Brazil  and  La  Plata.  The  most  important  dis- 
coveries of  this  kind  are  those  made  by  Professor  Hartt a  on 
the  island  of  Pacoval-Marajo  and  at  Taperinha  on  the  Rio 
Tapajos,  one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Amazon.  They  en- 

1  Mario  Isola,  "  Caverna  conocida  porpalacio  suterreano  de  Porongos  dep.  de 
San  Jose."  (R.  O.  del  U.)  Ameghino,  /,  c.,  p.  461.  "  El  Siglo  de  Monte- 
video." 

*  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1873,  p.  20. 


PERU.  473 

able  us  to  judge  of  the  general  form  and  ornamentation  of 
this  class  of  objects,  the  latter  consisting  chiefly  of  somewhat 
complicated  lines  traced  on  the  soft  clay  or  on  that  already 
hardened  by  the  sun.  The  vases  were  also  sometimes 
painted,  and  some  cups  in  the  form  of  birds,  of  the  most 
brilliant  colors,  are  especially  mentioned.  The  handles  pre- 
sent a  no  less  curious  variety,  imitating  sometimes  animals, 
sometimes  different  parts  of  the  human  body,  more  often 
still  grotesque  heads.  Imagination  was  certainly  not  want- 
ing to  these  unknown  potters.  An  urn  two  feet  and  a  half 
high  by  four  feet  in  diameter,  a  clumsy  imitation  of  the 
human  body,  is  the  most  remarkable  of  the  objects  sent  by 
Hartt  to  the  Peabody  Museum.  A  number  of  similar  urns, 
called  by  Hartt  Face  Urns,  have  also  been  found,  some  of 
them  containing  human  bones.  They  evidently  date  from 
remote  times,  for  nothing  that  we  know  of  the  mode  of  life 
of  the  Tupis,  and  especially  of  their  funereal  rites,  justifies 
us  in  attributing  these  urns  to  them. 

Some  fragments  of  pottery  have  also  been  found  under  a 
kitchen  midden  near  Santarem  (province  Para);  Hartt  dates 
this  midden,  which  consists  entirely  of  fresh-water  shells, 
from  the  same  period  as  the  most  ancient  heaps  in  Florida. 
The  broken  fragments  of  pottery  were  accompanied  by 
bones  of  various  animals ;  and  these  bones,  enclosed  in  a 
compact  breccia,  might  have  supplied  some  useful  indica- 
tions ;  but,  unfortunately,  they  have  not  been  described,  or 
at  least  their  description  has  not  reached  Europe. 

Barboso  Rodriguez,  commissioned  by  the  Brazilian  Gov- 
ernment to  explore  the  valley  of  the  Amazon,  speaks  of 
innumerable  fragments  of  pottery  heaped  up  eighteen  miles 
above  the  junction  of  the  Rio  das  Trombettas,  also  called 
the  Orixamena,  with  the  Amazon.1  In  this  expedition  he 
discovered  several  specimens  of  a  stone'  image,  called  Mui- 
rakitan.  It  represents  a  toad  or  a  frog,  cut  out  of  hard  rock. 
According  to  tradition,  these  were  amulets  given  by  the 

1  H.  Fischer  :  "  Sur  1"  origine  des  pierres  dites  d'  Amazone  et  sur  ce  peuple 
fabuleux,"  1880,  p.  127. 


474  PRE-II1STORIC  AMERICA. 

Amazons  to  their  lovers  at  their  annual  meeting  on  the 
banks  of  the  Yamunda.  Similar  imitations  of  batrachia  are 
met  with  in  Mexico  and  Peru,  and  we  have  spoken  of  the 
superstitious  idea  connected  with  them  by  the  Chibchas. 
As  for  the  fable  of  the  Amazons,  it  dates  back  to  the  ac- 
count of  Orillana,  one  of  Pizarro's  companions,  who  went 
down  the  river  in  the  years  1539  and  1540,  and  on  his  return 
to  Spain  told  of  the  battles  he  had  waged  with  women  as 
warlike  as  men.  These  adversaries  were  probably  the 
Uaupes,  slim  beardless  Indians,  with  delicate  extremities 
and  feminine  features,  whose  wives  were  only  the  witnesses 
of  struggles  in  which  they  took  no  direct  part. 

Lastly,  to  conclude  every  thing  relating  to  the  pottery  of 
South  America,  we  must  mention  some  urns  found  in  the 
islands  situated  to  the  north  of  Buenos  Ayres,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Parana.1  These  urns  are  of  plastic  clay,  and 
the  baking  to  which  they  were  subjected  having  been  very 
superficial,  they  fall  to  pieces  as  soon  as  they  are  disinterred. 
The  fragments  vary  from  an  inch  to  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in 
thickness.  It  has  been  possible  to  preserve  one,  with  very 
great  care ;  this  is  more  than  eighteen  inches  high,  by  a  di- 
ameter of  nearly  twenty-three  inches.  It  is  of  circular  and 
perfectly  regular  form ;  the  upper  part  is  rapidly  inflected, 
so  as  to  form  a  kind  of  neck  two  inches  high,  with  a  large 
opening.  The  vase  was  painted  white,  and  ornamented 
with  lines,  circles,  and  squares  painted  red.  These  decora- 
tions vary  infinitely,  and  a  great  many  pieces  of  pottery 
bear  ornaments  in  relief,  moulded  when  soft.  Each  urn  con- 
tained a  seated  skeleton,  with  the  head  bending  over  the 
breast  and  the  knees  drawn  up  toward  the  chin.  All  the 
bones  were  so  much  decomposed,  by  constant  inundations 
of  the  cemetery,  that  it  was  impossible  to  examine  them. 
In  the  province  of  Tucuman  similar  urns  are  mentioned, 
also  containing  skeletons.  In  that  of  La  Rioja  the  bodies 
were  placed  in  a  similar  position,  but  this  time  in  rush- 

1  Burmeister  :  ".Congres  d' Anthropologie  et  d' Archeologie  prehistoriques, " 
Brussels,  1872,  p.  348. 


PERU.  475 

baskets.  The  vases  or  baskets  were  deposited  in  natural  or 
artificial  caves.  Here  we  have  a  very  characteristic  funeral 
rite. 

We  have  been  careful  to  omit  none  of  the  discoveries 
made.  These  sculptures,  paintings,  and  pieces  of  pottery, 
found  at  considerable  distances  from  each  other,  appear  to 
bear  witness  to  a  higher  culture  than  that  met  with  by  the 
first  Europeans  who  landed  on  the  eastern  coast  of  South 
America.  In  Brazil  and  Uruguay  stone  hatchets,  weapons, 
and  implements  of  every  kind  have  frequently  been  picked 
up.  Lately  similar  weapons,  found  in  the  auriferous  de- 
posits of  the  province  of  Maranhao,  on  the  north-east  coast 
of  Brazil,  have  been  taken  to  the  Anthropological  Society 
of  Paris.1  These  are,  as  Dr.  Hamy  remarked  at  the  time, 
analogous  to  those  which  come  to  us  from  Guiana,  Mar- 
tinique, Guadaloupe,  Tahiti,  and  Upper  Peru,  thus  pleading 
in  favor  of  the  affinity  of  the  Guarani  group  with  the  races 
inhabiting  the  Antilles.  For  the  present  natives,  these 
stones  of  diverse  forms,  which  they  look  upon  with  supersti- 
tious terror,  have  all  fallen  from  the  sky.  It  is  interesting 
to  meet  in  America  with  a  legend  which  is  also  prevalent 
among  the  nations  of  the  Old  World." 

Here  closes  our  archaeological  task.*  We  have  given 
a  resum£  of  the  very  numerous  works  of  man  in  the  two 
Americas  ;  we  must  now  study  the  physical  conformation 
of  that  man  himself,  which  will  be  the  subject  of  the 
following  chapter. 

1  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  1881,  p.  206. 

1  "  Les  Premiers  Hommes  et  les  Temps  pre'-historiques, "  vol.  I.,  p.  n. 

1  Barboso  Rodriguez  has  recently  found,  writes  the  Emperor  of  Brazil,  to  M. 
de  Quatrefages,  a  hatchet  of  jadeite  ;  which  has  been  considered  to  be  a 
remarkable  fact,  as  no  deposit  of  jadeite  has  been  known  in  America  until  very 
lately.  Within  the  last  few  years,  however,  jadeite  has  been  discovered  in  situ 
both  in  Alaska  and  Nicaragua. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE   MEN   OF  AMERICA. 

IN  the  preceding  chapters  is  related  all  that  it  is  at  present 
possible  to  state  definitely  about  the  times  which  preceded 
the  Spanish  invasion  in  America.  We  have  seen  the  first 
inhabitants  of  the  New  World  passing  successively  through 
the  phases  of  a  civilization  analogous  to  that  of  our 
ancestors ;  struggling  with  humble  stone  weapons  against 
the  gigantic  animals  which  have  for  ever  disappeared,  piling 
up  huge  earthworks  to  defend  their  hearths,  to  honor  their 
gods,  or  their  dead,  scaling  almost  inaccessible  rocks  to  erect 
their  dwellings,  founding  towns,  building  monuments,  culti- 
vating the  arts,  establishing  governments,  and  obeying  fixed 
laws.  We  must  now  study  these  men  from  the  point  of  view 
of  their  physical  conformation,  examine  the  consequences 
which  result  from  these  studies,  and  the,  as  yet  very  incom- 
plete, conclusions  which  they  justify. 

Let  us  traverse  once  more  the  districts  where  we  have 
noted  the  relics  or  mementos  of  man  ;  let  us  demand  of  the 
sand  of  the  pampas,  the  mounds  of  the  Mississippi,  the  hua- 
cas  of  Peru,  the  huts  of  the  Eskimo,  the  bones  which  they 
conceal.  Nothing  that  touches  these  questions  can  be  in- 
different to  the  thinker.  These  men,  of  whom  a  few  miser- 
able relics  are  the  sole  witnesses,  have  lived,  loved, 
struggled,  and  suffered  like  ourselves.  Their  life  has  been 
like  the  life  of  our  fathers,  their  past  like  the  past  of  our 
own  race ;  their  instincts,  their  aspirations,  their  ideas,  were 
like  the  instincts,  the  aspirations,  the  ideas,  of  our  predeces- 
sors. Unfortunately  these  bones,  the  importance  of  which 
was  once  not  even  suspected,  have  not  always  been  pre~ 

476 


THE  MEN  OF    AMERICA.  477 

served  with  proper  care.  The  excavations  undertaken, 
either  out  of  curiosity  or  in  search  of  treasures  dear  to 
credulity  and  avarice,  were  often  not  methodically  con- 
ducted, or  superintended  by  competent  men  ;  hence  nu- 
merous errors,  of  which  it  is  well  to  warn  the  reader  at  the 
outset. 

Amongst  the  most  ancient  human  relics  discovered, on 
American  soil  may  be  ranked  a  skull  brought  to  light  by  the 
works  of  a  railway  near  Denver,  three  and  a  half  feet  below 
the  surface  of  the  ground.1  It  lay  in  a  loess  which  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  at  all  displaced ;  this  loess  covers  im- 
mense plains,  and  offers  a  striking  resemblance  to  the  glacial 
deposits  of  Europe.  We  have  already  noted  in  our  first 
chapter  that  it  has  yielded  numerous  implements,  of  a  make 
very  similar  to  those  of  European  paleolithic  times.  Every 
thing  points  to  the  conclusion  that  this  skull  dates  from  the 
same  period  ;  but  we  have  no  details  as  to  its  structure,  and 
if  it  proves  the  existence  of  man  on  the  American  continent 
during  the  glacial  period,  it  does  not  tell  us  what  this  man 
was  like,  who  lived  in  the  midst  of  glaciers. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  very  curious  discoveries  of  Ame- 
ghino  in  the  La  Plata  pampas,  which  discoveries  were  sup- 
plemented and  confirmed  by  others  in  1882."  The  whole  of 
the  country  between  Buenos  Ayres  and  Rosario  along  the 
Parafla,  is  a  vast  undulating  plain,  about  five  thousand 
square  leagues  in  area. 

The  pampean  formation  is  beneath  a  first  layer  of  vege- 
table earth  about  three  feet  deep  ;  it  includes  an  upper 
layer  varying  from  fifteen  to  eighty  feet,  which  goes  down 
to  the  borders  of  the  stream  as  far  as  the  level  of  the  water, 
and  is  characterized  by  the  presence  of  the  Glyptodon,  Mylo- 
don,  and  Hoplophorus,  with  some  equine  and  ruminant  ani- 
mals ;  also  a  second  layer,  from  three  to  ten  feet  thick, 

'Ch.  Abbott:  "The  Paleolithic  Implements  from  the  Glacial  Drift  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Delaware  near  Trenton,  New  Jersey."  "Report,  Peabody 
Museum,  1878,"  vol.  II.,  p.  257. 

*  C.  Vogt  :  "  Squelette  humain  associe  aux  glyptodontes,"  "  Bull.  Soc. 
Anth.,"  20th  Oct.,  188*. 


478  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

where  the  bones  are  less  friable  and  better  preserved.  It 
contains  the  remains  of  the  Mastodon,  Megatherium,  and 
Toxodon.  Roth,  to  whom  we  owe  these  details,  looks  upon 
the. two  layers  as  belonging  to  the  quaternary  age  ;  but  he 
asserts  that  in  his  numerous  excavations  he  has  always 
found  the  two  faunae  completely  distinct. 

It  was  in  the  first  layer  that  the  human  relics  were  picked 
up,  near  Pontimelo  on  the  north  of  the  province  of  Buenos 
Ayres.  They  included  a  skull  with  the  lower  jaw ;  the  cer- 
vical vertebrae  were  at  a  distance  from  the  skull ;  the  ribs 
lay  here  and  there  ;  and  one  femur  adhered  to  the  pelvis. 
The  bones  of  one  hand  were  in  their  place;  those  of  the 
other,  with  those  of  the  foot,  were  dispersed ;  and  several 
were  missing. 

All  the  bones  were  decomposed,  and  the  outer  parts  were 
eaten  away  by  decay.  They  were  placed  beneath  the  cara- 
pax  of  a  Glyptodon,  turned  upside  down.  Under  the  skull 
were  found  an  oyster-shell  and  an  implement  of  deer-horn, 
on  which  human  workmanship  was  scarcely  apparent. 

Such  are  the  facts ;  we  are  bound  to  mention  them,  in 
order  to  omit  nothing  in  relation  to  the  important  subject 
under  notice.  Unfortunately,  we  have  no  information  as  to 
the  shape  of  the  skull,  or  that  of  the  long  bones.  The  rapid 
displacements  resulting  from  rain,  wind,  and  rivulets  of 
water,  resulting  from  the  constant  storms  of  the  district,  pre- 
vent us,  moreover,  from  being  positively  certain  of  the 
contemporaneity  of  the  owner  of  the  bones  with  the  Glypto- 
don. 

We  have  nothing  to  add  to  what  we  have  said  about  the 
human  skeletons  met  with  in  the  caves,  which  formed  the 
homes  or  burial-places  of  the  ancient  Americans.  Some  of 
these  bones  probably  date  from  a  very  remote  antiquity,  but 
the  observations  made  are  not  yet  sufficiently  numerous  to 
admit  of  any  final  conclusion. 

We  shall  make  but  one  exception  in  favor  of  the  skull 
of  Lagoa  Santa  (Brazil),  and  will  borrow  the  description 
given  by  M.  de  Quatrefages  at  the  meeting  of  the  Anthro- 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA.  479 

pological  Congress  held  at  Moscow  in  1879.'  "  This  skull," 
he  says,  "  belonged  to  an  individual  more  than  thirty  years 
old ;  outside  it  presents  a  metallic,  bronzed  aspect ;  its 
weight  is  considerable.  The  zygomatic  arches  are  broken 
in  the  middle ;  the  styloid  processes  have  disappeared ;  on 
the  right  temple  we  see  an  elliptical  opening  forty-eight  mil- 
limetres by  twenty,  probably  caused  by  the  blow  of  some 
instrument  which  caused  death.  The  forehead  is  low  and 
retreating,  as  in  all  American  skulls ;  the  glabella  is  promi- 
nent ;  the  supra-orbital  ridges  are  very  prominent ;  and  the 
occiput  is  almost  vertical.  The  external  occipital  protuber- 
ance is  wide,  smooth,  and  not  prominent ;  the  plane  of  the 
foramen  magnum  carried  forward  includes  a  horizontal  line 
joining  the  two  orbits.  The  cheek-bones  are  prominent, 
and  project  in  front.  The  orbits  are  quadrangular,  and  the 
lateral  walls  of  the  skull  are  vertical.  The  mastoid  pro- 
cesses are  small,  and  almost  completely  united.  On  the 
upper  jaw-bone  we  see  fourteen  alveoli  more  or  less  frac- 
tured, and  the  second  molar  tooth  is  worn  away."! 

We  must  also  remark  that  the  capacity  of  the  cranium 
(1388  cubic  centimetres),  although  small,  is  greater  than  the 
average  of  the  skulls  of  the  Mound  Builders,  and  that  the 
cephalic  index  (69.72)  is  of  a  pronounced  dolichocephalic 
type.3  The  wearing  away  of  the  incisors,  of  which  we  have 
already  had  occasion  to  speak,  attracted  the  attention  of 
Lund.  He  looked  upon  this  characteristic  as  peculiar  to  the 
man  of  Sumidouro,  and  thought  that  it  ought  to  separate 
him  from  the  various  human  races,  except  perhaps  from  the 
ancient  Egyptians,  among  whom  the  same  peculiarity  is  met 
with.  To  De  Quatrefages,  on  the  contrary,  this  peculiarity, 

1  Besides  the  account  given  of  this  Congress,  may  be  consulted  the  "  Me- 
raoires  de  la  Soc.  d'  Hist,  et  de  Geog.  du  Bresil." 

*  A  skull,  the  general  form  of  which  is  very  much  the  same,  has  been  found 
at  Rock  Bl"ff,  on  the  borders  of  Illinois.  Schmidt  :  "  Zur  Urgeschichte  Nord 
Amerika,"  Archiv  fur  Anthropologie,  vol.  V.,  p.  241. 

3  Lacerda  and  Peixotto  affirm  that  the  ancient  races  of  Brazil  were  dolicho- 
cephalic. The  same  peculiarity  is  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  skulls  picked 
up  in  the  plains  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  Senor  Moreno,  in  his  turn,  as- 
serts the  same  to  be  true  with  regard  to  those  from  the  paraderos  of  Patagonia. 


480  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

noted  amongst  all  the  fossil  European  races,  establishes  an 
unexpected  relationship  between  the  primitive  inhabitants 
of  the  Old  and  the  New  World.  "  It  is  curious,"  he  adds, 
"  to  see  so  striking  an  artificial  characteristic,  and  which  can 
only  result  from  a  common  mode  of  mastication,  occurring 
amongst  paleontological  peoples  and  then  disappearing  en- 
tirely amongst  the  living  races  of  the  two  continents." 

But  the  danger  of  too  hasty  generalization  is  here  exhib- 
ited in  a  striking  manner,  for  this  feature  is  common  not 
only  to  most  crania  of  the  northern  Indians  of  North 
America,  but  exhibited  almost  without  exception  among  the 
Eskimo  and  Hyperborean  people  now  living  in  North 
America  and  northeastern  Asia. 

Quatrefages  also  affirmed  that  the  shape  of  the  head  found 
in  the  crania  of  Lagoa  Santa  is  met  with  on  the  shores  of 
both  oceans,  and  as  far  as  the  heart  of  the  Peruvian  Cordil- 
lera. It  is  also  seen  in  two  modern  Aymara  skulls,  and  in 
some  heads  examined  by  Wiener.  We  may  reasonably  con- 
clude that  the  race  of  which  the  head  found  by  Lund  is  a 
type1  contributed  a  share,  at  present  undetermined,  in  the 
constitution  of  the  Brazilian  and  Andeo-Peruvian  races. 
The  present  peoples  of  America,  like  those  of  Europe,  are 
the  issue  of  the  intermixture  of  several  races.  The  crossings 
are  true  modifications  of  fundamental  types.  The  men  of 
the  primitive  races  have  resisted  these  modifications ;  they 
have  not  yet  completely  disappeared,  and  in  spite  of  varia- 
tions from  one  extreme  to  the  other,  an  attentive  study  fre- 
quently enables  us  to  recognize  a  predominant  type.1 

The  exploration  of  the  shell-heaps,  which  are  very  nume- 
rous on  the  coasts  of  Oregon  and  California,  have  led  to 
interesting  results.3  In  many  places  excavations  have  yield- 
ed the  mortars  and  pestles  so  characteristic  of  the  ancient 

1  Quatrefages  attaches  importance  to  the  fact  that  in  the  Lagoa  Santa  skull 
the  vertical  diameter  exceeds  the  maximum  transverse  diameter.  This  double 
character  also  recurs  among  living  men. 

"  De  Quatrefages  and  Hamy :  "Crania  Ethnica."  Foster:  "Prehistoric 
Races  of  the  U.  S.,"  Chicago,  1873. 

3  P.  Schumacher  "Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1878,  vol.  II.,  p.  203. 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA.  481 

inhabitants  of  the  country,  pieces  of  pottery,  little  steatite 
vases,  pipes,  daggers,  knives,  stone  arrow-points,  carvings  of 
hard  stone,  and  bone  or  shell  implements.  In  one  of  these 
shell-heaps,  in  the  midst  of  rubbish  of  all  sorts,  were  picked 
up  thirty  skulls,  in  a  pretty  good  state  of  preservation,  and 
two  or  three  nearly  complete  skeletons. 

The  Island  of  Santa  Catalina  contains  a  steatite  quarry, 
the  importance  of  which  is  attested  by  the  number  of  vases, 
pots,  and  plates  in  every  stage  of  fabrication.  In  the  quarry 
lay  fifty  skulls,  which  had  belonged  to  these  ancient  work- 
men. Twenty-nine  were  in  a  state  to  be  measured;  the 
capacity  of  one  of  them  was  very  great,  amounting  to  1680 
c.c.;  but  this  was  an  isolated  case  ;  the  average  is  low,  being 
only  1326  c.c.  for  the  male  skulls  and  1279  c.c.  for  the  female 
skulls. 

The  skulls  taken  from  the  shell-heaps  of  Florida,  which  latter 
consist  chiefly  of  fresh-water  shells,  give  a  somewhat  higher 
average  (1375  c.c.).  They  are  of  remarkable  thickness,  reach- 
ing nearly  half  an  inch,  and  one  of  these  skulls  weighs  no 
less  than  995  grammes,  a  weight  rarely  reached  by  fossil 
skulls.1 

Rare  as  are  still  the  bones,  especially  the  skulls,  of  the 
Mound  Builders  which  have  been  carefully  examined,  either 
from  the  point  of  view  of  their  structure,  or  that  of  the 
deposit  in  which  they  were  discovered,  we  are  already  able 
to  establish  certain  general  characteristics,  such  as  the  small 
height  and  capacity  of  the  skull,  the  obliquity  of  the  zygo- 
matic  arch,  flattening  of  the  tibia,  and  perforation  of  the 
humerus.  These  characteristics  are  met  with  in  most  skele- 
tons of  the  so-called  Mound  Builders,  and  they  may  even 
help  us  to  distinguish  between  their  bones  and  those  of  the 
more  modern  Indians,  who  often  appropriate  for  their  own 
dead  the  tombs  of  those  who  preceded  them. 

In  saying  that  these  are  the  general  characteristics  of  the 
more  ancient  bones  found  in  the  mounds,  we  do  not  pretend 

'"Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1871,  p.  13.  Foster:  "  Preh.  Races,"  p- 
159- 


482  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

to  deny  the  existence  of  numerous  exceptions.  Nowhere, 
either  in  the  Old  or  New  World,  do  we  find  exactly  similar 
forms,  or  absolutely  typical  racial  characteristics.  Exces- 
sive variety  is  the  general  law,  which  still  remains  unex- 
plained. One  of  the  most  ancient  skulls  which  can  be 
attributed  to  the  mound  period  was  discovered  in  the  county 
of  New  Madrid,  Missouri,  under  a  mound  which  contained 
numerous  human  remains.  This  skull  lay  at  a  depth  of 
about  thirty  feet  and  from  the  mound  rose  venerable  trees, 
the  offspring  of  a  yet  more  ancient  forest,  for  their  roots 
clasped  the  old  trunks  of  their  predecessors.  Since  the 
erection  of  this  mound,  the  Mississippi  had  accumulated 
alluvial  deposits  to  the  height  of  six  feet.  Near  by  was 
picked  up,  under  identical  conditions,  the  tooth  of  a  masto- 
don. Every  thing  points  to  the  conclusion  that  the  original 
owner  of  this  tooth  was  the  contemporary  of  the  man  with 
whom  chance  had  associated  him  in  a  common  tomb.  If  a 
single  proof  is  not  enough  to  justify  a  belief  in  the  extreme 
antiquity  of  this  skull,  it  would  seem  that  the  total  of  the 
proofs  we  give  will  enable  us  to  assert  it  with  something  of 
confidence.  We  still  hesitate,  however ;  for  not  only  is  it 
small  and  oval,  differing  little  from  modern  skulls,  but  Swal- 
low, in  giving  an  account  of  these  facts  to  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science '  added  a 
description  of  an  excavation  under  his  own  supervision  in  a 
neighboring  mound,  which  he  claims  to  be  of  the  same  peri- 
od. Several  bodies  had  been  deposited  in  this  sepulchre, 
the  bones  were  decomposed,  and  only  a  few  little  heaps  of 
gray  dust  remained,  last  relics  of  man.  On  the  other  hand 
were  picked  up  numerous  fragments  of  pottery,  and  vases 
ornamented  with  drawings  representing  heads,  busts,  some- 
times the  entire  bodies  of  men  and  women.  These  figures 
are  of  an  elevated  type,  too  little  in  harmony  with  the 
antiquity  claimed  for  the  mound. 

In  other  places  we  come  to  opposite  conclusions.    In  1872 
Foster*  called  attention  to  the  resemblance  of  certain  skulls 

1  "Report,  Am.  Assoc.,"  Portland,  1873,  p.  403. 
'"Report,  Am.  Assoc.,"  Dubuque,  Iowa,  1872. 


THE   MEN  OF  AMERICA.  483 

found  near  Chicago,  at  Merom,  Indiana,  and  at  Dubuque, 
Iowa.  This  resemblance  also  exists  between  the  weapons, 
pottery,  and  ornaments,  as  well  as  in  the  earthworks,  and 
justifies  us  in  deciding  on  the  identity  of  the  population  of 
these  regions.  The  bones  present  the  characteristics  we  are 
in  the  habit  of  looking  upon  as  belonging  to  inferior  races. 
Thus  the  examination  of  a  skull  found  at  Dubuque,  that  of 
another  of  from  Dunleith  mound,  Illinois  (fig.  208,  D],  with 
the  study  of  numerous  cranial  fragments  found  at  Merom,1 
and  at  Chicago,  show  the  well-known  characteristics  of  the 
Neanderthal*  skull  (fig.  208,  C),  one  of  the  lowest  of  those 
which  excavations  have  yielded  in  Europe. 

These   are   not   exceptional   facts ;   the    skull    found    at 
Stimpson's  mound  (fig.  208,  B]  reminds  us  of  that  of  Bor- 

A 


FlG.  208. — .-•/ ,  European  skull.     B,  Stimpson's  mound  skull.    C\  The  Neander- 
thal skull.     D,  Dunleith  mound  skull.     E,  Skull  of  Chimpanzee. 

reby,  the  degraded  type  of  which  is  celebrated  ;  those  from 
Kennicott  mound  are  also  characterized  by  a  very  low  fore- 
head. The  skull  of  an  infant,3  as  far  as  can  be  determined, 
for  it  is  very  incomplete,  is  still  stranger,  for  it  resembles, 
more  than  any  other  known  skull,  those  of  the  anthropoid 
apes. 

1  It  is  only  fair  to  add  that  other  skulls,  found  near  Merom,  are  of  a  superior 
type  ;  but  they  were  taken  from  stone  graves,  the  walls  of  which  are  formed  of 
very  thin  slabs  of  stone,  covered  in  with  flat  stones.  It  is  probable  that  these 
sepulchres  are  those  of  a  later  period. 

J  "  Les  Premiers  Hommes  et  les  Temps  pre'historiques,"  vol.  I.,  p.  149, 
*  This  skull  was  kept  in  the  collections  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Chicago. 
It  was  destroyed  in  the  great  fire  of  1871. 


484  PRE-H/STOKJC  AMERICA. 

The  same  facts  are  established  in  Missouri.  Two  crania 
were  taken  from  a  cegular  sepulchre,  under  a  mound  that 
had  not  been  disturbed.  The  forehead  in  these  crania  is 
low,  the  head  flat  (fig.  209),  whilst  other  skulls  found  beneath 
the  same  mound  are  not  of  this  type.  The  explorers  at  first 
made  the  mistake  of  attributing  the  former  to  a  secondary 
burial ' ;  but  careful  examination  proved  that  all  the  bones 
dated  from  the  same  period.  Similar  vases  had  been  placed 
in  similar  positions  with  each  body,  and  the  mound  had 
been  erected  after  the  burial  of  all  the  bodies,  that  these  ex- 
cavations were  to  bring  to  light. 

A  skull  obtained  from  a  mound  in  Dakota2  has  also  a  very 
retreating  forehead,  orbits  nearly  as  prominent  as  those  of 


FIG.  209. — Fragment  of  a  skull  from  Missouri. 

the  long-armed  ape,  and  a  pronounced  prognathism  ;  the 
jaw  is  massive,  and  in  contrast  with  these  inferior  character- 
istics the  nose  is  aquiline  and  well  formed.  Skulls  of  an 
analogous  type  have  been  found  in  certain  sepulchres  of 
Chihuahua,  where  the  bodies  were  not  stretched  out  hori- 
zontally, but  seated  in  a  slightly  stooping  posture.  The 
most  ancient  skulls  of  Ohio  have  also  this  retreating  forehead, 
and  Dr.  Lapham  mentions  two  skulls,  preserved  in  the  Mil- 
waukee Museum,  with  low  forehead  and  prominent  brows. 
The  doctor  looks  upon  these  as  typical  characteristics  of  the 

1  Conant  :   "  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races,"  p.  106. 

1  A  perpendicular  line  traced  from  the  lower  jaw  to  the  level  of  the  top  of  the 
skull  would  pass  about  two  inches  from  the  forehead.  Short :  "North  Ameri- 
cans of  Antiquity,"  pp.  128,  107.  This  skull  was  discovered  by  General  H. 
W.  Thomas. 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA.  48 5 

ancient  races  of  Wisconsin,  characteristics  subsequently 
modified  either  by  crossing  with  a  superior  race  or  perhaps 
by  the  progress  of  the  primitive  race  itself. 

The  prominence  of  the  brows  is  no  less  exaggerated 
in  two  skulls,  one  from  a  mound  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,1 
the  other  from  a  tumulus  in  Tennessee.2  The  teeth  of  the 
latter  are  worn  and  several  of  them  show  traces  of  decay. 
The  head  is  in  every  case  depressed  on  the  right  side,  probably 
from  the  pressure  of  the  superincumbent  earth  after  burial. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  mounds  erected  in  the 
region  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  we  have  said  that  they  were 
the  work  of  a  people  that  had  covered  the  valleys  of  the 
Ohio  and  Mississippi  with  earthworks.8  We  may  mention 
the  great  mound  of  the  Red  River,  in  which  were  found  the 
fragments  of  a  skull  in  a  bad  state  of  preservation,  remind- 
ing us,  in  its  massive  proportions,  of  that  of  Neanderthal; 
and  a  circular  mound  near  the  Detroit  River,  which  latter 
yielded  eleven  skeletons,  and  besides  them  sepulchral  vases, 
hatchets,  arrow-points,  scissors,  stone  drills,  pipes,  and  shell 
ornaments.  The  skulls  are  mostly  in  bad  condition.  One 
from  Circular  mound  has  a  cranial  index  of  74.1,  one  from 
Western  mound  of  76.7,  and  another  from  Fort  Wayne 
of  77.3.  Objects  were  also  obtained  made  of  copper  which 
doubtless  came  from  Lake  Superior,  a  needle  several  inches 
long,  and  a  collar  made  of  seeds,  threaded  on  a  cord  manu- 
factured out  of  the  fibres  of  bark.  Did  all  these  objects 
form  part  of  the  furniture  of  the  tomb  ?  We  are  justified 
in  doubting  it,  for  the  cinders  of  a  hearth  were  also  dis- 
covered, and  we  may  presume  that  the  habitation  of  the  liv- 
ing had  succeeded  the  last  abode  of  the  dead.  This  habita- 
tion must  have  been  very  ancient,  for  the  present  inhabitants 
of  the  country  remember  to  have  seen  the  mound  covered 
with  venerable  trees,  which  have  now  disappeared. 

1  American  Antiquarian,  July,  1879, 

a Jones:  "Explorations  of  Aboriginal  Remains  of  Tennessee,"  "Smith. 
Cont.,"  vol.  XXII. 

"Gillman:  "The  Ancient  Men  of  the  Great  Lakes,"  Am.  Ass.,  Detroit, 
1875.  "Cong,  des  Am.,"  Luxembourg,  1877,  p.  65. 


486 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA, 


One  of  the  skulls  found  in  these  last  excavations  and 
deposited  in  the  Peabody  Museum  presents  important  peculi- 
arities. It  is  singularly  low  and  long,  and  although  adult, 
for  the  sagittal  suture  is  united,  its  capacity  scarcely  amounts 
to  fifty-six  cubic  inches,  or  nine  hundred  and  seventeen 
cubic  centimetres.  According  to  Morton's  tables  the  mean 
capacity  of  an  Indian  skull  is  eighty-four  cubic  inches,  and 
the  minimum  capacity  observed  by  that  eminent  anthro- 
pologist was  sixty-nine  cubic  inches.  The  difference  is 
decided,  and  this  skull  if  normal  is  certainly  one  of  the 
smallest  known.  Another  peculiarity  is  no  less  important  : 


FIG.  210. — Skull  from  a  mound  in 
Tennessee. 


FIG.  211. — Skull  from  a  mound  in 
Missouri. 


the  distance  between  the  temporal  crests  on  either  side 
of  the  frontal  bone  nearly  always  varies  between  three  and 
four  inches.  The  minimum  known  at  the  present  day  is 
two  inches,  and  yet  in  the  Detroit  skull  it  is  not  more  than 
three  fourths  of  an  inch.  This  is  doubtless  a  very  pronounced 
Simian  character,  such  as  is  met  with  in  the  chimpanzee, 
for  example.  Professor  Wyman,  who  carefully  examined 
this  skull,  asserts  that  it  has  not  been  subjected  to  any 
artificial  deformation.  Here  then  we  have  a  curious  fact  ; 
but  it  impossible  to  come  to  any  serious  conclusion  from  a 
case  of  such  extreme  variation,  a  variation  which  is 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA.  487 

probably  individual,  for  it  is  not  met  with  in  any  of  the 
other  skulls  from  the  same  source.1 

Though  most  of  the  skulls  which  can  be  attributed  with 
any  certainty  to  the  so-called  Mound  Builders  are  short  or 
brachycephalic,  there  are  numerous  exceptions ;  and  often 
beneath  the  same  mound  have  been  found  skulls  which 
appear  to  date  from  the  same  period,  yet  which  present  dif- 
ferent forms  ;  numerous  excavations  have  established  similar 
facts  in  the  Old  World,  which  naturally  lessens  the  impor- 
tance that  one  is  disposed  to  attribute  to  mere  form. 

A  few  examples  will  better  elucidate  the  questions. 
Putnam 2  mentions  two  skulls,  one  brachycephalic  and  the 
other  dolichocephalic,  lying  in  the  same  tomb.  Of  eight 
skulls  from  the  great  Red  River  mound,  three  only  are 
brachycephalic.  On  the  other  hand,  of  four  found  on 
Chambers'  Island,  Wisconsin,  three  are  decidedly  brachy- 
cephalic. Ten  skulls  have  been  found  under  the  sepulchral 
mound  at  Fort  Wayne,  of  which  one  is  long,  or  dolicho- 
cephalic, while  the  others  are  medium,  or  orthocephalic,  or 
even  brachycephalic,  with  a  cephalic  index  varying  from 
seventy-seven  to  eighty-two  in  those  that  it  has  been  possi- 
ble to  measure.  The  forehead  is  retreating,  the  eyebrows 
are  prominent,  and  the  bone  is  of  average  thickness.  These 
characteristics  are  met  with  in  all  the  skulls,  although  in  this 
case  the  interment  appears  to  date  from  different  periods. 
In  Michigan,  the  skulls  found  under  the  mounds  are  dolicho- 
cephalic, and  the  tibiae  platycnemic.1 

Dr.  Farquharson 4  has  examined  twenty-five  skulls  ob- 
tained from  different  mounds ;  the  average  cephalic  index 
was  75.8,  or  in  other  words  the  form  is  slightly  dolicho- 
cephalic. Carr  examined  sixty-seven  skulls  from  the  stone 
graves  of  Tennessee,  of  which  nineteen  are  brachycephalic, 

1  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  187*3,  p.  12.    "  Report,  Am.  Assoc.,"  Buffalo, 
1876. 
*  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1878,  vol.  II.,  p.  316. 

3  Hubbard  :   "  Am.  Ant.,"  March,  1880. 

4  "  Observations  on  the  Crania  from  the  Stone  Graves  in  Tennessee."    "  Re- 
port, Peabody  Museum,"  vol.  II.,  p.  361. 


488  PRE-IIISTORIC  AMERICA. 

five  only  dolichocephalic,  eighteen  orthocephalic,  and  fifteen 
artificially  depressed.1  Jones,  after  the  examination  of 
twenty-one  skulls,  also  found  in  the  stone  graves  of  Tennes- 
see, obtained  a  somewhat  different  result.  He  found  no 
dolichocephalic  skull,  but  five  were  orthocephalic,  eight 
brachycephalic,  and  eight  artificially  deformed  (fig.  210). 

In  Missouri  two  categories  of  skulls  have  been  authenti- 
cated, differing  as  much  from  each  other  as  do  those,  for  in- 
stance, of  the  Caucasian  and  the  Negro  races.8  The  skele- 
tons are  in  the  same  position.  Vases,  weapons,  and  imple- 
ments of  the  same  kind  have  been  placed  alike  near  both, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  they  do  not  belong  to  the 
same  race,  or  that  they  do  not  date  from  the  same  period. 

Individual  variations  are  considerable.  The  skull  of  a 
child  from  Atacama  is  mentioned,  in  which  the  cephalic 
index  is  only  66  ;  and  another,  found  under  a  mound  of 
Alabama,  in  which  it  reaches  in. 8.  Except,  perhaps,  in 
such  extreme  cases,3  the  same  facts  can  be  authenticated  in 
Europe  during  pre-historic  times,  and  have  been  perpetuated 
to  our  own  day.  Must  we  look  upon  this  as  the  result  of  a 
very  ancient  admixture  of  races,  as  examples  of  atavism,  or  can 
it  be  that  the  mode  of  life  and  differences  of  the  occupation, 
prolonged  during  centuries,  have  exercised  such  influence  ? 
Whataver  may  be  the  cause  of  these  modifications,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  they  exist,  and  we  must  not  fail  to  recognize  that, 
in  taking  the  shape  of  the  skull  as  characteristic  of  a  race, 
we  obtain  results  as  unsatisfactory  in. the  New  as  in  the  Old 
World. 

We  are  far  from  accepting  the  theory  of  Morton  4  who 
constantly  proclaimed  a  unity  of  physical  type  amongst  all 
the  inhabitants  of  the  two  Americas,  with  the  sole  exception 

1  "  Recent  Explorations  of  Mounds  near  Davenport,  Iowa."  "  Report,  Am. 
Assoc.,"  Detroit,  1875. 

*  Conant  :   "  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races." 

3  "  In  no  part  of  the  world,"  said  Retzius,  "  does  cranial  morphology  present 
differences  more  marked  or  extremes  more  exaggerated."  "  Ethnol.  Schriften," 

pp.  37,  98- 

4 ' '  Crania  Americana  ;  or,  A  Comparative  View  of  the  Skulls  of  Various  Abo- 
riginal Nations  of  North  and  South  America,"  Philadelphia,  1839. 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA.  489 

of  the  Eskimo.1  To  him  the  long  skulls  of  the  Peruvians  do 
not  differ  from  the  round  ones  of  the  Indians,  except  on 
account  of  the  pressure  to  which  they  were  subjected  during 
infancy,  and  the  result  of  which  would  have  been  to  modify 
the  primitive  form.  He  adds  that  amongst  all  those  races 
the  same  mode  of  burial  was  adopted,  and  that  from  Canada 
to  Patagonia  the  dead  were  placed  in  a  sitting  posture.  We 
have  already  shown  how  little  foundation  there  is  for  this 
latter  assertion.  The  first,  though  it  had  been  accepted  by 
such  savants  as  Agassiz,  Nott,  Meigs,  and  many  others,  is 
also  now  generally  abandoned,  and  important  discoveries 
are  every  day  rendering  its  further  defence  impossible. 

The  form  of  the  skull  can  have,  however,  but  a  very  gen- 
eralized value.  We  find  among  the  Eskimo  such  extremes 
of  length  as  199  and  165  mm.,  with  respective  breadths  of 
137  and  144  mm.,  which  is  sufficient  to  show  that  great  cau- 
tion must  be  used  in  generalizing  from  such  characters. 

This  negative  conclusion  is  the  only  one  that  can  as  yet 
be  formulated.  The  differences  of  opinion  between  the 
most  eminent  anthropologists  add  to  the  intrinsic  difficul- 
ties which  are  already  so  great.  Let  us  take,  for  example, 
the  Scioto  skull  discovered  under  a  mound  near  Chillicothe. 
This  skull,  remarkable  for  its  vertical  and  transverse  devel- 
opment, and  for  the  truncated  form  of  the  hinder  portion, 
was  long  looked  upon  as  presenting  the  most  complete  type 
of  the  Mound  crania.'  Messrs.  De  Quatrefages  and  Hamy,3 
in  their  magnificent  work  tell  us  that  "  the  orbits  are  wide 
and  quadrangular,  the  nose  is  prominent,  the  upper  jaws 
are  deep,  heavy,  massive,  and  slightly  projecting."  Dr. 
Wilson  describes  the  skull  as  decidedly  brachycephalic  ;  ac- 
cording to  him  the  forehead  is  wide  and  lofty,  and  the  de- 

1  "  Quatrefages  and  Hamy,  in  the  "  Crania  Ethnica,"  place  the  Eskimo  in 
the  Mongolian  group  because  they  appear  to  them,  as  to  Morton,  more  nearly 
related  to  the  yellow  type  than  to  the  American.  The  Eskimo  are  generally 
dolichocephalic. 

*  Squier  and  Davis  :  "  Anc.  Mon.  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  "  Smith.  Cont." 
vol.  I.,  pi.  XLVII.  and  XLVIII. 

3  "  Crania  Ethnica,"  p.  464. 


490 


PRE-HIS  TORIC  A  M ERIC  A . 


pression  noticed  is  artificial.1  Morton  gives  a  different  de- 
scription, and  Dr.  Foster  looks  upon  the  Scioto  skull  as 
merely  that  of  a  modern  Indian.  These  contradictions  il- 
lustrate the  inconvenience  of  too  absolute  theories  in  the 
present  state  of  science.  An  attempt  is  made  to  assign  all 
the  skulls  of  one  race  to  a  single  type,  without  taking  into 
consideration  the  vast  territory  inhabited  by  that  race,  or 
the  biological  conditions  under  which  it  lived. 

What  would  appear  to  be  proved  is  the  relatively  small 
cranial  capacity  of  the  Mound  skulls,  which  is  also  a  charac- 
ter found  among  the  various  living  races  of  America,  espe- 
cially the  Greenland  Eskimo.  Some  measurements  will 
enable  us  to  judge  better  of  this. 


Source.                                No.  of  Skulls. 

Maximum 

Minimum. 

Average. 

c.  c. 

c.  c. 

c.  c. 

Skulls  examined  by  Farquharson    .       15 

1362 

936 

1188 

Skulls  examined  by  Jones  * 

21 

1667 

1  100 

1318 

Tennessee  Stone  Graves 

30 

1825 

1084 

I34i 

Kentucky         ..... 

24 

1540 

1130 

1313 

Albany   ...... 

9 

1540 

1130 

IIOO 

Rock  River     ..... 

II 

1540 

1130 

1205 

Henry  County          .... 

4 

1540 

1130 

1205 

Santa-Catalina  Id.   California 

18  Male 
1  8  Female 

1680 
1451 

1282 
1098 

1326 
1279 

Santa-Cruz,  California3    .         .          j 

40  Male 
32  Female 

1625 
1528 

"44 
1048 

1365 
1219 

These  averages  are  low,  and  they  appear  still  lower  if  we 
compare  them  with  those  obtained  from  other  races.  We 
borrow  most  of  the  following  table  from  a  very  interesting 
work  by  Dr.  Topinard.  published  in  the  Revue  d'Anthropo- 
logie,  July,  1882  : 

1  "Preh.  Man,"  vol.  II.,  p.  127.  Carr  has  also  published  in  the  reports  of 
the  Peabody  Museum  an  excellent  article  on  this  question  :  "  Observations  on 
the  Crania  from  the  Stone  Graves  of  Tennessee." 

*  The  average   for  the  skulls  of  men   is   1459,  for  those  of  women,   1250. 
Jones,  "  Smiths.  Cont.,"  vol.  XXII. 

*  According  to  Morton,  the  skulls  of  the  Indian  of  to-day  give  on  an  average 
84  cubic  inches  or  1359  c.  c.,  and  not  1376,  as  stated  by  Dr.  Wyman. 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA. 


491 


No.  of  Skulls 
Examined. 

Races. 

Capacity. 

WHITE   RACES. 

25 

Solutre  ;  paleolithic  period          .... 

1525  c.  c. 

19 

Cave  of  the  Dead  Man  ;  neolithic  period   . 

1543     " 

44 

Baye  Cave           .                  

1483     ' 

38 

Gallic        .          .         .         .         .        .        . 

1552     ' 

65 

Merovingians  of  Chelles     .         .         .         .        . 

1465     ' 

125 

Parisians  of  the  I2th  century      .         .         .         ... 

1449    ' 

49 

Dutch  of  Zaandam     .         .         .         .         ... 

1463     • 

88 

Auvergnats  of  St.  Nectaire          .... 

I52Q 

63 

Bas  Bretons        ....... 

1479 

57 

Basques  of  St.  Jean  de  Luz        .... 

1556 

60 

Basques  of  Zaraus,  Guipuzcoa    .... 

1499 

27 

Savoyards  ........ 

1494 

ii 

Croats,  Slav,  race        

1433 

28 

Corsicans  of  Avapesa,  i8th  century    . 

1475 

19 

Arabs          

1447 

YELLOW   RACES. 

28 

Chinese       

1486  c   c. 

2Q 

1473      ' 

*v 

42 

Polynesians          ....... 

1449    ' 

II 

Laplanders          ....... 

1585 

IOI 

Eskimo  of  Greenland  (Hayes)    .... 

1250 

42 

Eskimo  of  N.  W.  America  (Dall) 

1401 

25 

Aleutians  (Dall)           

1409  • 

BLACK    RACES. 

21 

Hottentots         ..         .        .        . 

1317  c.  c. 

21 

Nubians     ........ 

1329  " 

21 

Australians         ....... 

1337  ' 

21 

Western  Negroes         ...... 

1423  ' 

21 

New  Caledonians        

1462    " 

We  must  descend  very  low  in  the  human  scale  to  find 
races  presenting  so  small  a  cranial  capacity  as  the  American 
Indians  of  the  Mound  period. 

A  few  exceptional  skulls  have,  however,  been  found  ;  one 
of  those  from  a  stone  grave  of  Tennessee  measures  no  less 
than  1825  c.  c.1 ;  it  is  equal,  in  consequence,  to  the  skull  of 
Cuvier.  Another  skull  is  mentioned,  also  picked  up  in  a 
stone  grave,  which  reaches  1667  c.  c.  Dr.  Jones  possesses 
one  in  his  collection  of  1688  c.  c.;  the  Army  Medical  Museum 
at  Washington  another,  discovered  in  Illinois,  of  1785  c.  c.; 
and  Schoolcraft  speaks  of  one  of  1704  c.  c.  Compared  with 
the  Albany  skull,  which  only  measured  936  c.  c.,1  these  dif- 

1  L.  Carr  :  "  Obs.  on  the  Crania  from  the  Stone  Graves  in  Tennessee." 
"  Peabody  Museum  Reports,"  vol.  II.,  p.  383. 

'Wyman  mentions  a  skull  of  capacity  amounting  only  to  530  c.  c.,  but  it  is 
that  of  a  microcephalic  person. 


492  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

fercnccs  are  considerable.  Skulls  of  extreme  size  are  a  grave 
argument  against  the  value  of  averages  ;  it  is  evident  that 
they  vitiate  all  the  results  that  can  be  obtained. 

If  it  remain  proved  that  the  development  of  the  cranial 
volume  amongst  the  various  races  of  the  New  World  is  in- 
ferior to  that  of  other  human  races,  whether  ancient  or 
modern,  except  perhaps  those  who  are  accounted  the  most 
inferior  of  the  globe,  this  may  be  an  anatomical  characteristic 
rather  than  a  psychological  one,  and  we  must  not  assume 
from  it  that  the  people  were  of  inferior  intelligence.  Other 
causes  doubtless  influence  the  intellectual  worth ;  no  one 
would  dream  of  comparing  the  ancient  Peruvians,  the  most 
advanced  people  of  South  America,  with  the  wandering, 
savage,  and  blood-thirsty  Indians  of  North  America  ;  yet  the 
average  capacity  of  the  skulls  of  the  latter  is  1359  c.  c., 
whilst  that  of  the  Peruvians  is  only  1250  c.  c.  In  glancing 
through  the  preceding  table,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the 
cranial  capacity  is  not  at  all  in  harmony  with  the  value  of 
the  race,  and  if  from  an  individual  point  of  view  the  skulls 
of  Cuvier  and  Byron  are  of  large  capacity,  numbers  of  re- 
markable and  even  of  eminent  men  might  be  mentioned 
whose  cranial  capacity  was,  on  the  contrary,  very  small.  The 
skull  of  Dante  scarcely  exceeds  the  average,  whilst  three 
skulls  of  unknown  men,  taken  from  the  potter's  field  of  Paris, 
reach  the  maximum.  The  superiority  of  a  people,  therefore, 
does  not  depend  either  on  cranial  capacity  or  on  the  charac- 
teristics of  certain  bones.  It  is  evident  that  other  factors 
enter  into  the  question,  of  which  we  are  as  yet  pretty 
ignorant. 

The  flattened  form  of  the  shin  bone  or  tibia,  called  platyc- 
nemia,  is  frequently  met  with  among  the  various  American 
races  (figs.  212,  213);  it  is  often  more  pronounced  than  in 
the  gorilla  or  chimpanzee.1  Wyman  looks  upon  this  as  a 
distinctive  characteristic,  for  under  certain  mounds  it  is  met 
with  in  nearly  all  the  tibia  discovered,  and  those  in  which  it 

1  With  these  two  monkeys,  the  mean  relation  between  the  two  diameters  is  67. 
Gillman:  "Rep.  Am.  Assoc.,"  Detroit,  1875,  P-  3*6. 


777 K   MEN  OF  AMERICA.  493 

does  not  occur  generally  belong  to  men  buried  later  than 
the  erection  of  the  tumulus.  But,  although  these  platycnemic 
or  sabre-blade-like  tibiae  are  common  among  the  big 
monkeys,  it  does  not  follow  that  we  ought  to  look  upon  it 
as  characteristic  of  inferiority.  While  reserving  this  point, 
it  is  certain  that  among  the  bones  collected  from  the  mounds 
of  Kentucky,  Missouri,  Michigan,  and  Indiana,  as  also  from 
the  Florida  shell-heaps,  the  number  of  those  in  which  platyc- 
nemia  occurs  may  be  estimated  at  thirty  per  cent.  It  is  no 
less  marked  in  a  certain  number  of  tibiae  discovered  in  the 
recesses  of  the  celebrated  Mammoth  Cave.1 

Platycnemia  is  yet  more  apparent,  and  the  sharp  edge 
more  pronounced,  in  the  tibiae  taken  from  the  great  mound 
of  the  Red  River,  and  in  those  of  Fort  Wayne.1  The  tumuli 

K 


FIG.  212. — Section  of  an  ordinary  tibia        FIG.  213. — Section  of  a  platycnemic 
at  the  level  of  the  nutrient  foramen.  tibia. 

of  the  St.  Clair  River,  those  erected  near  Lake  Huron,  with 
a  very  ancient  one  situated  on  Chambers'  Island,  Wisconsin, 
furnish  analogous  examples.'  Beneath  all  these  mounds, 
human  remains  are  associated  with  stone  implements,  bones 
of  birds  and  fish,  rude  pottery  and  necklaces  of  teeth  or  little 
bones,  all  objects  attesting  a  poorly  developed  culture. 

On  some  of  these  tibiae  the  relation  of  the  transverse 
diameter  to  the  antero-posterior  is  only  0.48 ;  even  this  .is 
not  the  extreme  limit,  for  in  certain  bones  from  a  mound 

"  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1875,  p.  49. 
*  Gillman  :  "  Rep.,  Am.  Assoc.,"  Buffalo,  1876. 

"  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1873.  Short:  "North  Americans  of  An- 
tiquity," p.  30. 


494  PRE-H1STOR1C  AMERICA. 

near  the  Detroit  River  it  is  as  low — exceptionally  so,  we 
must  add — as  0.43,  and  even  0.40.  These  figures  are  re- 
markable, and  they  will  be  better  understood  if  we  compare 
them  with  those  given  by  Broca  for  the  old  man  of  Cro- 
Magnon  ;  the  relation  between  the  two  diameters,  he  tells 
us,  is  0.68,  and  yet  this  is  one  of  the  extremest  cases  of  pla- 
tycnemia  observed  in  France. 

Platycnemia,  as  well  as  the  compression  of  the  femora, 
which  is  generally  considerable,  are  perhaps  the  results  of 
the  truly  immense  efforts  that  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
-America,  being  without  domestic  animals,  were  condemned 
to  make.  They  had  to  follow  game  on  foot,  and  overtake  it 
by  speed ;  they  had  to  carry  heavy  loads  across  mountains 
and  marshes ;  so  that  it  need  not  cause  much  wonder  if  their 
physical  conformation  was  affected  by  such  a  mode  of  life. 
Some  anatomists  look  upon  these  anomalies  as  the  result  of 
greater  liberty  in  the  movement  of  the  foot  and  a  more  con- 
stant habit  of  prehension.  Perhaps  we  ought  also  to  take 
into  account  the  kind  of  food  eaten  by  these  populations, 
which  in  course  of  time  might  modify  the  bony  parts.  It 
is,  however,  certainly  an  indication  of  a  low  type  of  physical 
structure. 

We  have  said  that  the  flattening  of  the  tibia  was  much 
more  rare  in  Europe  than  in  America.  It  is  easy,  however, 
to  give  examples  of  it  on  the  former  continent  ;  Busk '  was 
one  of  the  first  to  notice  it  in  bones  from  Gibraltar ;  Carter 
Blake,8  in  others  found  in  Wiltshire,  which  date  from  neo- 
lithic times  ;  Dr.  Prunieres,3  in  numerous  skeletons  from  the 
department  of  Lozere,  also  dating  from  the  same  period  ; 
Baron  von  Duben,4  on  those  from  Scandinavia  ;  Bertrand," 
on  a  tibia  found  at  Clichy ;  Broca,"  on  another  from  Sainte- 

1  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  1869,  p.  148. 

a  "  Journal  of  the  Anth.  Soc.  of  London,"  1865,  p.  146. 

*  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  1878,  p.  214. 

4  "The  tibia  is  always  compressed,  resembling  a  sabre  "("  Cong.  preh.  de 
Copenhague,"  1869,  p.  243).     "  Mat.,"  1869,  p.  544. 

*  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  February,  1869. 
'  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  1866,  p.  642. 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA.  495 

Suzanne  (Sarthe).  Side  by  side  with  these  specimens  the 
tibiae  found  by  Dupont  in  the  caves  of  Belgium,1  with  a  great 
number  of  others  dating,  to  all  appearance,  from  paleolithic 
times,  are  triangular,  resembling  those  of  modern  Europeans. 
The  characteristics,  then,  which  have  been  proposed  in  order 
to  differentiate  races  have  existed  from  the  most  remote  an- 
tiquity, and  among  the  most  varied  peoples  ;  this  is  without 
doubt  an  important  fact. 

The  perforation  of  the  humerus  has  also  been  considered 
a  racial  characteristic  by  Dr.  Topinard,  although  we  are  un- 
able to  say  what  race  or  races,  if  any,  bequeathed  this  peculi- 
arity to  their  descendants.  It  is  very  frequently  noticed  in 
bones  from  the  mounds,  and  often  occurs  upon  half  of  those 
picked  up.  Going  toward  the  south  this  proportion  dimin- 
ishes, until  it  is  no  more  than  thirty-one  per  cent.  The  Pea- 
body  Museum  contains  no  less  than  eighty  humeri  found 
beneath  the  mounds  of  the  west,  or  under  those  of  Florida, 
of  which  twenty-five  are  perforated  ;  it  also  contains  fifty- 
two  humeri  belonging  to  white  races,  in  only  two  of  which 
this  typical  characteristic  occurs."  Side  by  side  with  these 
facts,  of  ten  skeletons  found  at  Fort  Wayne  but  one  has  per- 
foration of  the  olecranon  fossa. 

It  is  difficult,  then,  to  establish  a  general  law ;  it  has  been 
said  that  this  perforation 8  is  a  characteristic  of  physical  in- 
feriority, which  assertion  is  founded  on  the  fact  that  it  is  of 
more  frequent  occurrence  among  the  anthropoid  apes4  than 
among  men,  among  negroes6  or  Indians  than  among  whites; 

1  Hamy  tells  us,  however,  that  a  tibia  from  the  Goyet  cave  is  platycnemic. 
"  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  1873,  p.  427. 

'"Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1872,  p.  .28.  "Cong,  des  Am.,"  Luxem- 
bourg, 1877,  vol.  I.,  p.  69. 

*  Which  may  have  been  the  result  of  the  length  of  the  bone  hindering  the  play 
of  the  articulation. 

4  Wyman  has  authenticated  the  perforation  of  the  olecranon  fossa  on  but  one 
of  the  humeri  of  the  two  male  gorillas  that  he  was  able  to  examine.  He  did 
not  find  it  on  a  female  chimpanzee,  nor  on  a  male  ourang-outang,  both  belong- 
ing to  the  British  Museum  ;  the  Anthropological  Society  of  Paris  owns  a  fine 
gorilla  skeleton,  which  has  one  of  the  humeri  perforated. 

6  Of  fourteen  negro  humeri  preserved  in  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  seven  are 
perforated. 


496  P RE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

that  its  tendency  is  to  diminish  among  the  European  races, 
and  that  it  is  more  often  met  with  in  bones  from  ancient 
cemeteries  than  amongst  our  contemporaries.1     This  conclu- 
sion appears  to  us  still  somewhat  premature,  in  the  present 
state  of  anthropology. 

It  has  also  been  said  that  the  people  of  the  Mound  period 
had  very  long  arms  ;  this  again  is  called  a  simian  character- 
istic.    Gillman  has,  in  fact,  recently  shown   that   there  is 
nothing  in  it,  at  least  with  regard  to  the  men  buried  under 
the  mound  of  Fort  Wayne,  and  that  estimating  the  average 
stature  at  1,000  we  have  the  length  of  the  arm  as  follows  : 
In  modern  Indians         .        .        .         353 
Whites       .        .        .        .       ...      348 

Mound  skeletons  .         .         .         343 

The  arms  of  the  last-named,  therefore,  far  from  being 
longer,  were  shorter  than  those  of  some  modern  Indians,  or 
white  men.  But  it  is  probable  that  the  material  is  still  too 
scanty  for  any  positive  conclusions. 

The  Mound  people  appear  to  have  varied  as  much  in 
stature  as  our  modern  races.  A  skeleton  is  mentioned, 
found  in  a  stone  grave  of  Tennessee,  which  measured  more 
than  seven  feet '  ;  another,  discovered  at  Fort  Wayne,  only 
reached  five  feet  eleven  inches,  Two  skeletons,  one  from 
Utah,  the  other  from  Michigan,3  exceeded  six  feet.  The 
latter,  enclosed  in  a  regular  winding-sheet  of  clay,  was  re- 
markable for  its  retreating  forehead  and  prominence  of  its 
brows.  Beside  it  lay  hewn  stones  and  fragments  of  pottery, 
ornamented  with  human  figures.  These  are  probably  very 
exceptional  cases ;  Professor  Putnam,  who  has  excavated 
with  extreme  care  numerous  sepulchres  in  Tennessee,  is  con- 
vinced that  the  men  who  rested  there  were  of  ordinary 

1  We  may  remark  that  amongst  prehistoric  French  races  the  perforated 
humerus  has  been  thought  to  belong  to  another  race  than  that  which  shows  the 
platycnemic  tibia  and  the  femur  with  the  sharp  edge.  "  Rev.  d' Anth.,"  1878, 

P-  514. 

'Jones  :  "  Explorations  of  the  Aboriginal  Remains  in  Tennessee,"  "  Smith. 
Cont.,"  vol.  XXII. 

'  Am.  Antiquarian,  July,  1879. 


THE   ME  A'  OF  AMERICA.  497 

stature,  and  although  he  often  met  with  tombs  made  of  slabs 
measuring  from  seven  to  eight  feet  long,  he  always  noticed 
a  pretty  wide  space  between  the  head  or  the  feet  of  the 
dead  and  the  walls  of  the  tomb.1  We  may  add  that  all  the 
skeletons  found  in  the  numerous  stone  cists  of  Madison 
county,  Illinois,  were  of  small  stature,  and  that  the  bones 
were  remarkably  slender.' 

We  have  already  described  the  numerous  canons  met  with 
in  New  Mexico,  Colorado,  or  Arizona,  and  the  ruins  which 
rise  wherever  the  rock  has  provided  space,  however  limited 
that  space  may  be.  We  possess  few  bones  of  these  inde- 
fatigable builders,  which  is  easily  explained  by  the  difficul- 
ties attending  excavations  in  a  country  still  uninhabited,  and 
where  explorers  are  constantly  exposed  to  danger  from  the 
Apaches. 

One  skull  is,  however,  mentioned  from  the  Chaco  Cafton, 
New  Mexico.  Among  the  ancient  alluvial  deposits  bearing 
witness  to  arroyos  now  dried  up,  fragments  of  walls  and 
foundations  testify  to  the  presence  of  a  formerly  numerous 
population,  anterior  perhaps  to  the  arrival  of  the  Cliff  Dwell- 
ers. It  was  in  the  midst  of  these  deposits,  at  a  depth  of 
about  fourteen  feet,  on  a  heap  of  broken  pottery,  that  this 
skull  (fig.  2 14)  was  found.  Probably  it  had  been  brought 
down  by  water,  for  researches  have  not  resulted  in  the  dis- 
covery of  any  other  human  bones.'  From  what  period 
must  we  date  it  ?  With  what  race  must  we  connect  it  ?  It 
is  at  present  impossible  to  decide  ;  we  only  know  that  it  be- 
longed to  a  young  woman,  whose  last  molar  teeth  had  not 
yet  appeared. 

It  is  asymmetrical,  the  forehead  is  low,  the  orbits  are  oval 
and  slightly  prominent.  The  most  curious  characteristic  is 
the  flatness  of  the  back  part  of  the  head.  This  flatness  is 
no  less  marked  in  the  parietal  bones,  and  especially  in  the 

'"Report,  Peabody  Museum,'  vol.  II.,  p.  306. 

*Bandelier:  "  Report,  Am.  Assoc.,"  St.  Louis,  1876.  Aehler  :  "Stone 
Cist  near  Highland,  Madison  county,  Illinois," 

'Dr.  W.  Hoffman:  "  Report  on  the  Chaco  Cranium";  U.  S.  Geol.  and 
Geog.  Survey,  Washington,  1878. 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

left  parietal.  The  skull  was  so  completely  filled  with  agglu- 
tinated sand  that  it  had  to  be  broken  to  get  the  exact  meas- 
urements, so  that  its  capacity  has  remained  undetermined. 

To  Dr.  Bessels '  we  owe  a  complete  description  of  several 
skulls  recently  discovered,  which  maybe  attributed  either  to 
the  Cliff  Dwellers  or  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  pueblos. 


FIG.  214— Skull  found  in  the  Chaco  Cafion,  and  attributed  to  the  Cliff  Dweller. 

Two  of  them  came  from  an  ancient  burial-place  near 
Abiquico,  (New  Mexico).  Each  tomb  was  surrounded  by 
piles  of  stones,  forming  now  a  rectangle,  now  a  circle,  and 
near  to  each  body  care  had  been  taken  to  place  numerous 
fragments  of  pottery.  The  first  of  these  skulls  presents  a 
very  marked  flattening  of  the  left  parietal,  and  a  less  appar- 
ent flattening  of  the  right  parietal.  The  orbits  are  promi- 
nent, the  forehead  is  not  distinguished  by  any  special  charac- 
teristic, the  lower  jaws  are  massive,  and  the  teeth,  especially 
the  incisors,  slightly  worn.  The  capacity  is  1325  c.c.  The 
second  skull  is  that  of  a  woman  of  about  seventeen  years  old  ; 
the  last  molar  teeth  are  beginning  to  appear,  the  progna- 
thous character  is  very  much  marked.  The  same  flattening 

1 "  The  human  remains  found  among  the  ancient  ruins  of  S.  W.   Colorado 
and  New  Mexico,"  p.  47. 


THE   MEN  OF  AMERICA.  499 

is  noticed  as  on  the  skull  just  described,  only  in  that  of  the 
man  it  is  more  pronounced  on  the  left  side,  and  in  that  of 
the  woman  on  the  right.  The  capacity  of  the  latter  is  very 
small,  and  does  not  exceed  1020  c.c. 

A  short  time  afterward  Dr.  Bessels  assisted  at  the  recep- 
tion for  the  museum  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  of 
numerous  objects  collected  from  the  mounds  of  Tennessee.1 
Amongst  these  objects  were  two  skulls  (figs.  210,21 1)  which 
struck  him  by  their  resemblance  to  those  of  New  Mexico. 
This  resemblance  is  such,  he  tells  us,  that  it  is  impossible  to 
distinguish  them  from  each  other. 

We  will  not  dwell  upon  the  other  skulls  of  the  Cliff 
Dwellers  ;  to  do  so  would  be  little  more  than  a  monotonous 
repetition.  In  all  we  note  this  characteristic  depression,  now 
more  marked  on  the  right,  now  on  the  left ;  it  is  certainly 
artificial,  and  we  find  it  already  very  marked  in  the  skull  of 
a  child  of  ten  years  old,  whose  jaw  also  shows  a  sensible 
tendency  to  prognathism."  In  the  skull  of  a  young  woman 
occurs  a  deformation  similar  to  that  of  the  Peruvians.  The 
orbits  are  but  little  prominent,  the  forehead  is  retreating, 
and  the  teeth  are  very  irregularly  set. 

De  Quatrefages  and  Hamy,  in  discussing  these  discoveries, 
add  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  ethnic  identity  of 
the  Mound  Builders  and  Cliff  Dwellers ;  which  conclusion 
would  extend  to  the  builders  of  the  Casas-Grandes  of  the 
Rio  Gila,  if  all  presented  the  same  characteristics  as  the  sub- 
ject exhumed  by  Pinart,  from  a  tumulus  near  the  Casa- 
Grande  of  Montezuma.' 

The  top  alone  of  this  skull,  which  now  belongs  to  the 
Paris  museum,  is  preserved.  Its  cranial  index  is  90.36.  One 
of  the  skulls  sent  from  Teul  presents  the  same  cephalic 
peculiarities,  except  that  it  is  more  flattened  from  before 
backward,  and  that  the  index  exceeds  97. 

But    although   the  ethnic  characteristics  of   the   Mound 

1  "  Congres  des  Americanistes,"  Luxembourg,  1877,  vol.  I.,  p.  147. 
1  This  head  is   preserved  in  the  Osteological  Collection  of  the  U.  S.  Army. 
Its  capacity  is  1213  c.c. 
*  "Crania  Ethnica,"p.  464, 


500  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

crania  are  met  with  even  in  distant  regions,  the  type  is  no 
longer  general,  according  to  the  learned  authors  of  the 
Crania  Ethnica,  in  the  countries  they  peopled,  and  they 
assert  that  among  the  number  of  skulls  of  modern  Indians 
preserved  in  various  collections,  we  find  but  a  few  resembling 
those  of  which  we  have  just  spoken.  What  most  clearly 
would  result  from  these  facts,  were  they  well  authenticated, 
is  the  rapidity  with  which  anatomical  modifications  of  a  sec- 
ondary order  might  proceed ;  hence  their  small  importance 
in  fixing  with  any  certainty  the  characteristics  of  a  race,  and 
above  all  for  following  successfully  the  development  of  these 
characteristics  through  generations. 

The  analogies  between  the  Mound  crania  and  those  of  the 
ancient  inhabitants  of  Anahuac  are  no  less  striking  than 
those  between  the  former  and  the  Cliff  Dwellers.1  Four 
skulls  from  the  tombs  of  Mexico,  Otumba,  and  Tacuba,  re- 
produce the  type  of  the  inhabitants  of  North  America  ; 
others  found  at  Santiago-Tlatelolcoli  admit  of  still  less 
doubt.8  In  all  we  see  the  flattening  of  the  occiput,  the  re- 
treating forehead,  and  massive  bones,  so  common  among  the 
Mound  crania,  especially  amongst  those  from  the  banks  of 
the  Ohio  and  Mississippi. 

Amongst  the  Mayas  this  flatness,  doubtless  due  to  arti- 
ficial pressure,  is  still  more  apparent.  This  is  proved  by  the 
bas-reliefs  of  Palenque  (figs.  123,  124).  The  pointed  heads, 
the  retreating  foreheads  presenting  so  strange  an  appearance, 
evidently  bear  witness  to  the  type  most  admired  among 
them.  Recent  explorers  think  they  have  found  this  type 
amongst  the  inferior  tribes  who  dwell  in  the  mountains;  but 
it  has  disappeared,  or  never  existed,  among  the  people  who 
erected  the  monuments  of  Yucatan  and  Honduras.  The 
sculptures  of  Chichen-Itza  present  a  type  absolutely  different 
from  the  preceding  (fig.  135).  "The  skull  is  large,"  says 
Charnay,  "  flattened  at  the  top,3  though  the  forehead  does 

1  Morton  :  "  Crania  Americana,"  pi.  XIX.,  XXXI.    Quatrefages  and  Hamy  : 
"  Crania  Ethnica,"  p.  466. 
a  These  skulls  belong  to  the  Paris  museum. 
*"  Cites  et  Ruines  Americaines,"  p.  341. 


THE  MEN  01-    AMERICA.  5OI 

not  bulge  out,  but  forms  with  the  aquiline  nose  an  almost 
straight  line." 

The  artificial  deformation  of  skulls  amongst  the  Peruvians 
renders  their  study  very  difficult ;  this  deformation  is  the  re- 
sult of  mechanical  pressure  on  the  skulls  of  new-born  in- 
fants ;  the  direction,  amount,  and  duration  of  this  pressure, 
all  alike  differing  according  to  circumstances.  Gosse,  in  his 
dissertations  on  the  races  of  Peru,  says  that  three  kinds 
of  deformation  were  practised  :  the  occipital,  amongst  the 
Chinchas,  and,  perhaps,  in  the  family  of  the  Incas ;  the 
elongated  symmetrical  deformation,  amongst  the  Aymaras  ; 
while  the  cuneiform  obtained  in  several  provinces,  such 
as  that  of  Chiquito.  This  last  gave  to  the  head  a  long  slope 
from  the  front  to  the  back.  These  deformations  were  still 
practised  in  1545,  and  at  that  time  the  council  of  Lima 
solemnly  forbade  them  under  the  names  of  Caito,  Opalta, 
and  Orna.  In  five  hundred  skulls  from  Peru,  the  property 
of  the  Paris  museum,  scarcely  sixty  are  exempt  from  this 
deformation.1  It  occurs  sometimes  from  the  front  toward 
the  back,  as  is  the  case  in  nearly  all  the  skulls  taken  from 
the  huacas  of  Ancon,*  while  sometimes  it  is  circular,  giving 
to  the  head  a  conical  form.  This  was  the  custom,  the 
fashion  if  we  like  to  call  it  so,  sought  after  by  the  Peruvians 
who  inhabited  the  neighborhood  of  LakeTiticaca  ;  this  char- 
acteristic occurring  in  nearly  all  the  skulls  from  the  Chulpas.* 

As  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  remark  the  cranial 
capacity  was  very  small.  In  eleven  skulls  from  Ancon, 
which  showed  no  trace  of  deformation,  the  average  in  only 
1129  c.  c.,  the  maximum  is  but  1260  c.  c.,  and  the  minimum 
sinks  to  1040  c.  c. 

In  other  parts  of  Peru,  as  can  be  seen  by  the  table  we 
give,  the  results  obtained  are  no  higher,  and  at  Chimu 
the  average  sinks  even  lower.4 

1  De  Quatrefages  and  Hamy  :   "  Crania  Ethnica,"  p.  474. 
""Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1874,  p.  8. 
'"  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1876,  p.  10. 

*  Squier  :  "  Incidents  of  Travel  and  Exploration  in  the  Land  of  the  Incas,"  «d 
edition,  London,  1878,  p.  582. 


5O2 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


Source. 

No.  of 
Skulls. 

Maximum 

Minimum. 

Average. 

c.  c.      !     c.  c. 

c.  c. 

Chulpas  near  Lake  Titicaca 

6 

1445           "55 

1292 

Casma 

14 

1455           1050 

1254 

Amacavilca 

16 

1320          1055 

1176 

Chimu 

7 

1460 

1065 

1090 

Pachacamac 

4 

1365 

1035 

"95 

Cajamarquilla 

5 

1410 

"55 

1268 

Truxillo 

4 

1325 

"35 

1286 

Total         

56 

1460 

1035 

1212 

Morton  and  Meigs  give  as  the  average  capacity  of 
Peruvian  skulls  measured  by  them  1230  c.  c. ;  we  have 
above  tabulated  it  at  1212  c.  c.  These  averages,  which  do 
not  differ  sensibly  from  those  of  Squier,  are  very  low, 
and  do  not  occur  again  among  any  known  race.  The  Peru- 
vian maxima  scarcely  equal  the  minima  of  other  people. 
This  is  a  fact,  of  which  we  have  no  satisfactory  explana- 
tion. 

Rivero  and  Tschudi  '  recognize  three  different  races  in 
Peru :  the  Chinchas,  occupying  the  Pacific  coast  from  10°  to 
14°  S.  Lat. a ;  the  Aymaras,  established  on  the  lofty  table- 
lands of  Bolivia ;  and  lastly  the  Huancas,  so  named  after 
the  most  powerful  tribe  amongst  them,  who  lived  between 
the  Cordillera  and  the  Andes  from  9°  to  14°  S.  Lat.  The 
authors  of  the  Antiguedades  Peruanas  do  not  admit  artificial 
deformation  except  amongst  the  Chinchas,  and  pretend  that 
amongst  the  other  races  it  is  congenital,  and  that  it  exists 
amongst  children  who  have  not  been  subjected  to  any  kind 
of  pressure,  and  even  amongst  certain  foetuses.  This  iso- 
lated fact  would  not  be  a  proof,  for  deformations  made  on 
the  body  at  the  time  of  the  birth,  as  Gosse  observes,  may  to 
a  certain  extent  be  transmitted  hereditarily.  They  become 
permanent  when  both  sexes  have  been  subjected  to  the 
same  deformations  to  a  similar  extent,  during  many  succes- 

1  "  Antiguedades  Peruanas." 

1  The  Chimus,  of  whom  we  have  spoken  in  a  previous  chapter,  should  be 
classed  amongst  the  Chinchas.  Meyer  ("  Reise  urn  die  Erde  ;  Beitrage  zur 
Zoologie,"  Bonn,  1834)  speaks  of  them  as  the  primitive  inhabitants  of  Peru. 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA. 


503 


sive  generations,  on  condition  that  the  means  employed 
have  profoundly  modified  alike  nutrition  and  the  structure 
of  the  bones.1 

To  the  difficulties  resulting  from  deformation  which  was 
practised  by  different  processes  throughout  the  -land  of  the 
Incas,  we  have  to  add,  as  everywhere  else,  the  incessant 
mixtures  of  race  and  type  which  are  met  with  amongst  the 
dead.  At  the  Castillo  of  the  great  Chimu,  Squier  saw 
together  regularly-shaped  heads,  attributed  to  the  Qquich- 
uas,  square-shaped  skulls,  obtained  by  posterior  pressure, 
and  elongated  skulls  (fig.  2 1 5),  the  cephalic  characteristics  of 
which  resemble  those 
of  Palenque  and  Co- 
pan,  as  they  are  made 
known  to  us  by  sculp- 
tures. 

Dr.  Wilson3  admits 
only  two  distinct 
types.  The  Peruvians 
of  the  time  of  the 
Incas  were  brachyce- 
phalic  and  of  small 
stature ;  they  had  a 
retreating  but  very 
lofty  forehead  and  a 
flattened  occiput ;  their  bones  were  light  and  delicate,  their 
fingers  long  and  tapering.  These  men  must  have  formed  an 
aristocratic  class,  incapable  of  fatiguing  work.  The  more 
ancient  Peruvians  were  on  the  contrary,  dolichocephalic  ; 
their  bones  are  heavy  and  massive,  the  attachments  robust ; 
every  thing  with  them  indicates  great  muscular  force.  Mor- 
ton confounds  these  two  types,  and  is  of  opinion  that  the 
second  sprung  from  the  first,  and  was  obtained  by  the  arti- 
ficial compression  to  which  infants  were  subjected.*  But 

1  Gosse,  /.  c.,  p.  162,  says  that  the  fact  appears  to  be  corroborated  by  modern 
experiments  on  domestic  animals. 

*  "  Prehistoric  Man,"  vol.  II.,  chap.  XX.,  pp.  145,  158,  165, 
'  Nott  and  Gliddon,  ' '  Types  of  Mankind." 


FIG.  215. — Deformed  skull,  said  to  be  Aymara, 
from  the  "  Crania  Ethnica." 


5<H  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA, 

Wilson'  justly  replies  to  him  that  skulls  artificially  deformed 
are  always  asymmetrical,  and  that  the  dolichocephalic  skulls 
on  the  contrary,  which  are  looked  upon  as  normal,  are 
always  completely  regular.  They  have  also  peculiar  charac- 
teristics: they  are,  for  instance,  longer  and  narrower;  the 
upper  jaw  is  extremely  prominent;  and  the  teeth,  especially 
the  incisors,  are  oblique. 

We  do  not  contest  any  of  these  assertions ;  we  content 
ourselves  with  repeating  what  we  have  already  said  several 
times,  that  the  existence  of  different  types  would  not  neces- 
sarily imply  that  of  different  races ;  the  causes  of  the  origin 
or  of  the  modifications  of  types  being  as  yet  absolutely  un- 
known.* 

The  custom  of  mummifying  human  bodies  has  enabled  us 
to  make  many  useful  observations.  The  mummy  discovered 
at  Chacota,  for  instance,  an  illustration  of  which  we  repro- 
duce (fig.  179),  gives  as  the  length  of  the  humerus  nine 
inches,  that  of  the  hand  five  and  one  half  inches,  that  of  the 
middle  finger  three  and  one  half  inches,  that  of  the  femur 
thirteen  inches,  of  the  tibia  twelve  inches,  of  the  foot  seven 
and  a  half  inches ;  whilst  the  width  of  the  hand  is  only  two 
inches,  and  of  the  foot  two  and  one  half  inches.8 

In  accordance  with  custom,  locks  of  hair  were  placed  by 
friends  in  the  tomb  as  a  last  testimony  of  affection.  This 
hair  is  as  fine  as  that  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  races,  and  the 
faded  color  generally  varies  from  dark  brown  to  chestnut. 
It  was  probably  originally  black.  It  was  the  custom  to  wear 

1 "  Few  who  have  had  extensive  opportunities  of  minutely  examining  and 
comparing  normal  and  artificially  deformed  crania  will,  I  think,  be  prepared  to 
dispute  the  fact  that  the  latter  are  rarely,  if  ever,  symmetrical."  Wilson,  /.  c. 

a  Virchow  notes  the  frequent  occurrence  in  Peruvian  skulls  of  an  anomaly, 
known  under  the  name  of  the  Inca  bone,  or  the  interparietal  bone,  and  asserts 
its  recurrence  amongst  the  Indo-Chinese  and  the  Malays  of  the  Philippine 
Isles.  According  to  him,  then,  it  would  be  characteristic  of  these  races  ;  but 
Anoutchine,  in  a  recent  work  ("  Rev.  d'Anthr.,"  1881),  has  shown  that  it  is  also 
met  with  amongst  the  negroes.  It  is  doubtless  common  to  individuals  among 
all  the  less  developed  races.  See  Gosse,  /.  c. ,  p.  165,  etc. 

s  J.  Blake  :  "  Notes  on  a  Collection  from  the  Ancient  Cemetery  of  the  Bay 
of  Chocota,"  "Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1878,  p.  384. 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA.  505 

the  hair  long,  to  plait  it,  and  let  the  plaits  hang  down  be- 
hind the  head.  Women  added  false  hair  to  their  plaits,  and 
after  the  lapse  of  centuries  the  opening  of  the  tomb  has  be- 
trayed their  vanity.  It  is  only  just  to  add  that  it  was  not 
only  the  woman  who  thus  called  art  to  the  aid  of  nature. 
The  dried  head  of  a  man  of  advanced  age,  for  his  hair  is 
dashed  with  gray  (fig.  216),  is  covered  with  little  false  plaits 
arranged  on  the  forehead.  This  head,  which  comes  from  an 
ancient  Peruvian  cemetery,  presents  notable  differences  from 
others  recently  discovered.  The  forehead  is  lofty,  the  nose 
prominent,  the  cheek-bones  are  high,  the  incisors  are  set 
vertically,  and  the  ears  are  disproportionately  distended. 
The  hair  is  now  brown,  and  the  plaits  hang  in  tresses,  as  did 
those  of  the  French  hussars  of  the  end  of  last  century.1 

If  we  advance  further  southward,  we  shall  meet  with  dis- 
tinctly dolichocephalic  races,  resembling  probably  the  ancient 
races  among  whom  this  form  has  been  noticed.  The  man 
discovered  by  Ameghino  in  the  pampas  was  of  small  stature, 
and  his  skull  was  dolichocephalic.  It  was  the  same  with 
those  found  by  Moreno  in  the  paraderos  of  Patagonia ;  both 
recall  the  type  of  the  Greenland  Eskimo  of  the  present 
time. 

The  fossil  skull  of  Lagoa  Santa  was  also  dolichocephalic, 
and  the  learned  authors  of  the  "  Crania  Ethnica  "  mention 
several  other  similar  skulls  discovered  in  Brazil.  The  ce- 
phalic index  of  one  of  them,  which  was  in  a  condition  for 
measurement,  is  70. 

The  Botocudos,  who  are  very  distinct  from  the  tribes 
surrounding  them,  and  who  doubtless  represent  the  most 
ancient  races  of  the  country,  are  also  dolicocephalic. 

They  are  no  less  remarkable  for  the  height  of  the  skull, 
the  prominence  of  the  brows,  and  the  lowness  and  rectangu- 
lar form  of  the  orbits.  In  all  these  respects  they  present,  as 
do  the  Patagonians,  numerous  analogies  with  the  Eskimo,1 

1  Blake,  /.  c.,  p.  301.     Morton  :   "  Crania  Americana,"  pi.  I. 
*  "  La  raza  esquimal  diffiere  de  la  masa  de  la  poblacion  americana,  y  con- 
serva  una  tal  homogenejdad  que  presenta  el  aspecto  de  una  razo  primitiva  aperau 


506 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


who  inhabit  the  other  extremity  of  the  American  continent. 
May  we  not  suppose  that  both  were  dispersed  and  then  re- 
treated, little  by  little,  before  conquering  races,  to  whom 
they  could  offer  but  an  inefficacious  resistance?  This  was 
what  happened  in  Europe  at  the  time  of  the  invasion  of  va- 
rious Asiatic  races  ;  the  Basques  and  Finns  were  driven  to 
the  extreme  limits  of  Europe  to  arid  and  uncultivated  re- 
gions ;  and  although  it  is  impossible  to  establish  with  any 

degree  of  certainty, 
we  are  justified  in 
supposing  that  simi- 
lar events  may  have 
taken  place  in  Ameri- 
ca, and  that  these 
ancient  races,  driven 
from  the  regions  they 
•first  inhabited,  were 
the  contemporaries 
of  the  European 
paleolithic  people. 
Every  thing  points 
to  the  conclusion  that 
the  most  ancient  in- 
habitants of  America 
were  little  inferior  in 
antiquity  to  the  earl- 
ier inhabitants  of  the 
Old  World. 

The  Spaniards  brought  small-pox  with  them,  which  caused 
great  havoc  amongst  the  natives,  whole  tribes  having  been 


FIG.  216. — Head  of  a  mummy  from  an  ancient 
Peruvian  sepulchre. 


modificada,  por  unos  que  otros  cruzamientos.  Lo  que  sobre  todo  distingue  al 
esquimal  de  todos  los  demas  pueblos  de  la  tierra  es  su  cabeza  sumamente 
larga," — Ameghino  :  "  La  Antiguedad  del  Hombre  en  el  Plata,"  vol.  I.,  p.  163. 
"  The  Eskimo  and  the  Botocudos  are  short,  the  cephalic  index  (73)  is  the  same  ; 
both  have  prominent  cheeks  ;  small,  oblique  eyes  ;  coarse,  straight,  black  hair  ; 
large,  distended  ears  ;  a  flat,  round  face  ;  and  a  tendency  to  obesity.  Even 
the  botoque,  the  strange  ornament  to  which  the  Botocudos  owe  their  name, 
is  met  with  among  the  western  Eskimo."  Bordier,  Topinard  :  "Bull.  Soc. 
Anthr.,"  1881. 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA.  5O/ 

destroyed  by  the  scourge.  They  in  their  turn  are  supposed 
by  some  to  have  received  from  the  Americans  a  no  less 
cruel  malady,  syphilitic  affections  destined  to  blight,  if  not 
to  destroy,  the  very  source  of  life.1  This  last  assertion  has 
been  hotly  contested ;  it  is  alleged  that  syphilis  existed  in 
America  before  the  i6th  century ;  did  it  also  exist  in 
Europe  ?  This  is  a  point  which  has  remained  very  obscure. 
The  Chinese  historians  relate  that,  2637  B.  C,  the  Emperor 
Hoang-ty  described  syphilitic  affections  in  both  sexes.  But 
this  fact,  which  would  prove  the  existence  of  syphilis  before 
the  discovery  of  America,  is  very  much  disputed.  Great 
stress  has  been  laid  on  the  Spanish  word  Buba,  which  is 
translated  by  syphilitic  affection  ;  but  it  remains  to  be  as- 
certained whether  this  word  then  had  the  same  signification 
which  we  give  to  it  now."  One  thing  which  is  not  doubtful 
is  that  the  bones  bearing  the  supposed  marks  of  this  malady 
have  been  found  in  the  stone  graves  of  Tennesee,3  and  that 
traces  of  a  similar  kind  occurred  on  other  bones  4  from  the 
mounds  of  Iowa,  Rock  River,  Illinois,  and  those  near  Nash- 
ville.6 It  is  not  only  in  the  Central  United  States  that  we 
see  these  indelible  traces,  and  we  have  already  mentioned  a 
skull,  from  the  paraderos  of  Patagonia,  on  which  Broca  no- 
ticed traces  of  inflammatory  action  which  he  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  attribute  to  a  syphilitic  affection. 

If  this  diagnosis  be  correct,  however,  it  may  be  taken  as 
bearing  either  way  ;  that  is,  the  interment  may  have  been 
subsequent  to  the  invasion  of  the  whites  or  the  disease  pre- 
ceded their  establishment  in  America. 

1  Clavigero:  "Storia  Antica  del  Messico,"  vol.  I.,  p.  117  ;  vol.  IV.,  p.  303. 
Herrera  :  "  Hist.  Gen., "dec.  II.,  book  CXXXI.  Gomera  :  "  Conq.  Mex.," 
fo.  148.  Sahagun  :  "Hist.  Gen.  de  las  Cosas  de  Nueva  Espana,"vol.  II., 
book  VII.,  p.  246.  Oviedo  :  "  Hist,  de  las  Indias." 

'  Troisieme,  "Cong,  des  Americanistes,"  Madrid,  1881 

'  "Several  skeletons  in  these  mounds  bore  unmistakable  marks  of  the  ravages 
of  syphilis,"  Jones  :  "  Aboriginal  Remains  of  Tennessee,"  "  Smith.  Cont., "  vol. 
XXII. 

4  Farquharson  :   "  Proc.  Am.  Assoc.,"  Detroit  (Michigan),  1875. 

6  Putnam  :  "  Arch.  Expl.  in  Tennessee  ;  "  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  vol. 
II.,  p.  305. 


5O8  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

It  is  questionable  whether  these  lesions  are  due  to  the 
alleged  pathological  cause  ;  "  Several  pathologists  who  have 
examined  these  bones  unite  in  stating  that  they  do  not  prove 
the  existence  of  syphilis,  as  other  diseases  not  syphilis 
might  have  such  effects  "  ' ;  but  other  facts  tend  to  confirm 
the  hypothesis.  Accounts  which  have  come  down  to  us  lead 
us  to  believe  that  the  Mayas  were  acquainted  with  venereal 
affections,  and  that  to  cure  them  they  used  the  bark  of  a 
tree  called  Guayacan,  native  to  Nicaragua.2  It  is  alleged 
that  in  the  ancient  languages  of  America  there  are  words 
relating  to  these  maladies,  the  origin  of  which  the  natives, 
by  a  grotesque  fancy,  ascribed  to  one  of  their  gods,  Nan- 
huatl,  who  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  to  infect  the  human 
race  with  this  disease.3  At  all  events,  there  is  no  a  priori 
reason  why  such  a  disease  may  not  have  been  common  to 
the  whole  human  race  from  a  very  early  period.  Other 
diseases  of  the  bones,  though  of  less  frequent  occurrence, 
were  not  unknown.  Dr.  Farquharson  describes  a  curious 
affection  of  the  cervical  vertebrae,  which  appears  to  have 
been  cured.  Recovery  from  this  lesion  was  rare  and  very 
tedious,  requiring  a  long  time  and  constant  care.  These 
people  then  lived  in  societies,  and  did  not  abandon  those 
belonging  to  them  who  were  afflicted  by  sore  infirmities. 
Several  skulls  of  Tennessee  bear  traces  of  ancient  inflamma- 
tions4 ;  old  anchyloses  have  also  been  noted  on  long  bones. 
Dall  collected  at  a  pre-historic  village  site  in  the  Aleutian 
Islands,  a  skeleton  of  which  the  entire  vertebral  column 
was  anchylosed  as  a  sequel  to  some  severe  affection ; 
so  that  the  individual  must  have  lived  for  years  in  a 
crouching  posture.  This  skeleton  is  now  in  the  Army  Medi- 
cal Museum  at  Washington. 

Neither  were  hurts  resulting  from  traumatic  causes  rare. 

1  Putnam  :   "  Rep.,  Peabody  Museum, *'  vol.  II.,  p.  316. 

a  Dr.  Bruhl  (Cincinnati  Lancetand  Clinic,  May  29,  1880)  speaks  of  the  syphi- 
litic remedies,  known  to  the  inhabitants  of  Central  America  and  Peru. 

*  Brasseur  :  "  Hist,  des  Nations  civilisees,"  vol.  I.,  p.  181. 

4  L.  Carr:  "Observations  on  the  Crania  from  the  Stone  Graves  of  Tennes- 
see ;  "  "Peabody  Museum  Report,"  vol.  II.,  p.  381. 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA.  509 

The  Peabody  Museum  contains  two  Peruvian  skulls  collected 
by  Agassiz,  which  deserve  to  be  mentioned.  One  of  them 
has  a  fracture  five  centimetres  long  by  three  broad  and 
eighty-four  millimetres  deep.  The  work  of  repair  is  very 
visible,  and  four  fragments  of  the  bony  structure  have  again 
become  united.  The  other  skull,  which  belonged  to  an 
adult,  has  a  long  fracture  on  the  forehead,  eleven  centimetres 
long  by  five  broad,  which  was  doubtless  produced  by  a 
violent  blow  from  a  club.  Here,  too,  the  five  or  six  frag- 
ments that  can  still  be  made  out  had  united.  In  both  cases 
the  wounded  had  probably  lived  for  many  years  after  their 
injury  ;  they  had  triumphed  by  the  strength  of  their  consti- 
tution, for  there  are  no  traces  of  any  surgical  operation,  such 
as  the  removal  of  pieces  of  bone.1 

It  was  not  always  thus.  On  another  skull,  also  belonging 
to  the  remarkable  collection  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  a  per- 
foration can  be  seen,  probably  attempted  as  a  mode  of  heal- 
ing an  inflammation  of  the  cranium,  the  trace  of  which  is 
very  apparent,  and  Squier  speaks"  of  a  Peruvian  skull  (fig. 
217),  found  in  a  cemetery  of  the  Yucay  valley,  in  which  a 
piece  seems  to  have  been  taken  out  by  means  of  four  regular 
incisions.  The  opening  measures  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
seven  by  one  hundred  and  forty-six  millimetres.  Here,  too, 
the  bones  show  traces  of  an  ancient  inflammation,  and  some 
eminent  surgeons,  such  as  N61aton  and  Broca,  have  not  hesi- 
tated to  attribute  this  perforation  to  an  operation  attempted 
during  life. 

We  must  not  confound  these  operations  with  the  post- 
humous trepannings*  of  frequent  occurrence  in  some  parts 
of  America. 

We  know  nothing  certain  about  the  reason  for  these  tre- 
pannings ;  whether  they  were  a  mark  of  honor,  a  religious 

1  Wyman  :  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1874,  p.  10. 

*  Squier  :    "  Incidents  of  Travel  and  Exploration  in  the  Land  of  the  Incas," 
p.  457,  appendix  A. 

*  Am.    Assoc.,    Detroit,   1875.      H.    Gillman  :     "  Add.    Facts    Concerning 
Artificial  Perforation  of  the  Cranium  in  Ancient  Mounds  in  Michigan,"  Am. 
Assoc.,  Nashville,  1887. 


5io 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


rite,  or  were  made  to  let  out  the  brain,  or  for  hanging  up  the 
head,  or  were  intended  to  allow  the  soul  to  revisit  the  body 
that  it  had  inhabited.  All  these  hypotheses  are  possible ; 
none  of  them  can  be  proved.  Excavations  in  a  mound  of 
an  irregular  conical  form,  from  ten  to  fifteen  feet  high,  have 
brought  to  light  five  skeletons  buried  standing ;  a  sixth  lay 
in  the  centre  of  the  tumulus,  evidently  occupying  the  place 
of  honor ;  all  alike  had  a  similar  perforation  in  the  skull. 

Trepanned  skulls  have 
also  been  taken  from  a 
mound  near  Sable  River, 
and  from  the  large  tu- 
mulus of  the  Red  River, 
of  which  we  have  al- 
ready spoken ;  but  the 
perforations  are  gener- 
ally smaller  than  those 
of  the  skulls  from  other 
mounds.  The  trepan- 
nings  of  Michigan, 
about  which  we  have 
more  complete  details, 
were  always  made  after 
death,  and  only  on 
adults  of  the  male  sex ' ; 
they  are  from  one  to  two 
centimetres  in  diameter,  and  usually  occur  at  the  sagittal  su- 
ture,5 generally  at  the  point  of  junction  with  the  coronal  suture. 
They  were  obtained  by  means  of  an  instrument,  probably  a 
pointed  stone  drill,  which  was  turned  round  rapidly.  We 
have  noticed8  these  perforations  in  Europe,  especially  in 
France,  where  they  have  been  so  completely  discussed  by 

1  Broca  :   "  Rev.  d'  Anth.,"  1876,  p.  435. 

5  The  sagittal  suture  unites  the  two  parietal  bones,  and  stretches  from  before 
backward  along  the  median  line.  The  coronal  suture  extends  from  one  tem- 
poral bone  to  the  other,  above  the  crown,  uniting  the  frontal  to  the  parietal 
bone. 

*  "  Les  Premiers  Hommes,"  vol.  II.,  p.  218  et  sty. 


FIG.  217. — Trepanned  Peruvian  skull. 


THE   MEN   OF  AMERICA. 


Broca.1  They  were  often  surgical,  and  made  upon  the  skull 
of  the  living  (fig.  218).  Every  age  and  both  sexes  were  sub- 
ject to  them.  Their  position,  form,  and  length  varied 
according  to  the  wound  or  the  nature  of  the  malady  they 
were  supposed  to  relieve.  Comparison  between  them  and 
American  trepannings  is,  therefore,  difficult.  A  circular 
cranial  perforation  has  also  been  mentioned  in  an  American 
cranium,  in  every  respect  similar  to  those  found  in  France 
by  Dr.  Prunieres,  but  the  discovery  is  thus  far  unique. 

We  must  recur  again  to  curious  artificial  deformation  of 
the  skull,  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  north  and  south  of 
the  American  conti- 
nent. At  the  time  of 
the  Spanish  conquest 
the  greater  n  u  m  - 
ber  of  the  natives, 
especially  those  in- 
habiting the  coasts  of 
the  Pacific,  retained 
their  ancient  habit  of 
compressing  the  head 
of  their  infants  at  the 
time  of  their  birth." 
The  most  recent  of 
these  deformations, 
most  fashionable,  if  we  may  use  such  a  word,  was  the  flat- 
tening of  the  forehead,  so  that  the  head  is  widened  at  the 
side,  and  looks  as  though  displaced  backward,  the  angle  of 
inclination  varying.  There  were  yet  others  ;  at  the  first 
Congres  des  Americanist es,  held  at  Nancy,  in  1875,  were 
shown  successively  an  Aymara  skull  from  Bolivia,  lengthened 

1  "  Memoire  lu  en  1876  au  Congres  de  Buda-Pest,"  "  Rev.  d'  Anth.,"  1877. 

"Wilson:  "Prehistoric  Man,"  vol.  II.,  chap.  XXI.  Jones:  "Ant.  of 
Tennessee,"  "Smith.  Cont.,"  1876.  Catlin  :  "North  American  Indians,"  vol. 
II.,  p.  40.  Bancroft:  "The  Native  Races,"  vol.  I.,  II.,  and  IV.  Dr. 
Moreno  ("  Rev.  d'Anth.,"  1874,)  has  obtained  in  the  cemeteries  of  Patagonia 
forty-five  skulls  of  ancient  Tehuelches,  eighteen  presenting  a  very  marked  de- 
formation. 


FIG.  218. — Perforated  skull  from  the  de  Baye 
collection.  • 


$12  P RE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

to  a  point  ;  another  of  the  same  origin  of  cylindrical  form  ; 
an  Indian  skull  flattened  from  before  backward  so  as  to 
give  the  forehead  huge  dimensions  ;  and,  lastly,  Patagonian 
skulls,  one  of  which  had  been  subjected  to  such  pressure  in 
the  middle  of  the  head  that  it  presented  a  two-lobed  appear- 
ance. 

This  custom  dates  from  the  most  ancient  races  who  peo- 
pled the  country  ;  nearly  all  the  Mound  skulls  thus  far 
discovered  have  the  occiput  flattened  ;  but  with  them  the 
deformation  is,  perhaps,  of  less  exaggerated  character  than 
amongst  the  American  races.  Many  of  these  deformations 
may  be  attributed  to  posthumous  causes,  such  as  the  pres- 
sure of  the  earth  upon  the  bones  softened  by  moisture. 
Under  one  of  the  mounds  of  Utah,  in  the  centre  of  that 
country  which  a  few  years  ago  was  an  absolutely  unknown 
desert,  a  skull  has  been  obtained  showing  a  considerable 
artificial  depression.1  This  deformation  was  practised  among 
all  the  Maya  races ;  the  representations  of  the  human  form 
found  in  Chiapas,  Honduras,  and  Yucatan,  leave  no  doubt 
on  this  point  (figs.  123,  124,  126,  128).  The  skulls  taken  by 
Dr.  Flint  from  the  caves  of  Nicaragua  have  also  a  very 
marked  frontal  depression.1  The  origin  of  this  custom  is 
unknown  ;  but  it  is  stated  to  have  been  introduced  among 
men  by  the  gods  themselves.  The  idols  all  have  curiously 
flattened  heads.  Recent  excavations  near  Vera  Cruz  have 
brought  to  light  some  earthenware  statuettes,  in  which  this 
same  deformation  occurs,  and  which,  according  to  the  custom 
among  Mexicans  of  the  ruling  class,  have  a  pointed  beard  on 
the  chin. 

The  means  employed  varied  greatly.  Sometimes  the  de- 
formations were  obtained  by  means  of  planks  fastened  on 
the  head  of  the  child.  Our  illustration  (fig.  219)  shows  the 
martyrdom  inflicted  on  these  little  creatures,  which  lasted 
eight  or  ten  months,  but  apparently  did  not  inflict  much 
pain.  We  may  reasonably  suppose,  from  the  shape  of  the 

1  "  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1871,  vol.  II.,  p.  199. 
1  "Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  1880,  vol.  II.,  p.  716. 


THE   MEN  OF  AMERICA. 


5'3 


mother's  head,  that  she  wished  to  make  that  of  her  child 
like  it. 

In  other  cases  bandages  were  wound  round  the  head 
of  the  new-born.  The  Choctaws  '  used  a  little  bag  of  sand, 
on  which  the  head  rested  constantly.3  The  Mosquitos 
placed  a  plank  on  the  skull  of  their  infants  as  soon  as  they 
were  a  month  old,  and  they  increased  the  pressure  until  the 
result  obtained  was  satisfactory.  In  Yucatan,  four  or  five 
days  after  its  birth 
the  child  was  laid 
upon  its  stomach,  and 
the  head  placed  be- 
tween two  planks ; 
one  pressed  the  fore- 
head and  the  other 
the  occiput ;  and  this 
position,  which  ap- 
pears so  cruel,  was 
maintained  without 
change  for  a  consid- 
erable time.3 

These      grotesque 
customs  do   not    ap- 
pear to  have  injured 
either  the  health  or- 
the  intelligence,   nor 
should  they  surprise 
us,  for  we  meet  with  them  on  every  page  of  ethnic  history. 
Hippocrates4  speaks  of  a  macrocephalic  tribe  living  near 

1  Among  the  Choctaws,  as  among  the  Aymaras,  cranial  deformation  was  ex- 
clusively reserved  for  male  infants. 
1  Adair :  "  Hist,  of  the  American  Indians,"  p.  284. 

3  Oviedo  y   Valdes:  "Hist.  Gen.  y   Nat.   de   las  India-,"  Madrid,  1851-4, 
vol.  IV.,  p.  54.     Herrera  :  "  Hist.  Gen.  de  los  Hechos   de  los   Castellaiios  en 
las  Islas  i  Tierra  Firme  del  mar  Oceano,"dec.  III.,   book   IV.,   chap.  VII.  ; 
Dec.  X.,  book   X.,  chap.    III.,  Madrid,    1601.     Squier  :  "  Nicaragua,"   New 
York,  1860,  vol.  II.,  p.  341.     Landa  :   "  Relacion  de   las  Cosas  de  Yucatan," 
Paris,  1864,  pp.  114,  1 80,  194. 

4  "  De  Aeris,  Aquis,  et  Locis." 


FIG.  219. — Artificial  deformation  practised  on 
a  child. 


5H  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Palus  Moeotis  among  whom  the  parents,  at  the  birth  of  a 
child,  endeavored  to  give  an  elongated  form  to  the  head ; 
Strabo  '  mentions  an  Asiatic  people  among  whom  the  fore- 
head was  forced  out  beyond  the  line  of  the  chin  by  arti- 
ficial means.  Blumenbach  saw  a  skull  with  this  depression 
taken  from  a  tumulus  in  the  Crimea ;  another  exactly 
similar  was  found  near  Kertch,  so  that  it  was  a  general 
practice.  Such,  too,  was  the  custom  of  the  Mongolian 
Avari,2  if,  as  we  suppose,  we  may  attribute  to  them  either 
the  skulls  of  Grafenegg  and  Atzgerrsdorf  near  Vienna,  or 
others  discovered  in  various  parts  pf  Germany  and  Switzer- 
land, in  which  the  same  deformation  occurs.  A  medal 
struck  in  honor  of  Attila,  452  A.  D.,  bears  the  bust  of  the 
"  Scourge  of  God,"  in  which  the  head  is  visibly  depressed. 
A  skull  thus  deformed,  belonging  to  a  skeleton  of  very  great 
stature,  has  been  found  near  the  gate  of  Damascus  at  Jeru- 
salem.3 Dr.  Meigs  recognized  that  the  form  was  due  to 
pressure  exercised  during  infancy.  This  artificial  modifica- 
tion of  the  head  also  existed  among  the  Caledonians,  Scan- 
dinavians,4 and  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  most  remote  ages.5  It 
exists  in  our  own  day  in  a  great  many  of  the  islands  of 
Oceanica.  The  shape  of  the  head  is  even  a  means  of  recog- 
nizing the  islanders,  for  the  people  of  different  islands  have 
peculiar  customs,  transmitted  from  their  ancestors  and 
formerly  religiously  observed.  Among  the  Flatheads  it 
was  an  aristocratic  privilege,  and  neither  slaves  nor  men 
of  inferior  condition  were  allowed  to  adopt  it  for  their 
children. 

But  without  going  so  far,  we  still  meet    with    this   cus- 

"' Geographia,"  book  I.,  chap.  XIX. 

"  Retzius  in  noting  the  constant  deformation  amongst  the  Mongols  pretends 
that  it  was  introduced  into  America  by  Asiatic  emigrants.  "  Archives  des  Sci- 
ence Naturelles,"  Geneva,  1860.  "Smiths.  Report,"  1859,  p.  270. 

s  This  skull  is  now  part  of  the  collections  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences 
at  Philadelphia.  "  Description  of  a  Deformed  Fragmentary  Skull  in  an 
Ancient  Quarry  Cave  at  Jerusalem,"  "Trans,  of  Philadelphia  Acad.  of  Nat. 
Sciences,"  1859. 

4Gosse  :  •'  Essai  sur  les  deformations  artificielles  du  crane,"  p.  72. 

"Thurman:  "Crania  Britannica,"  p.  38, 


THE  MEN  OF  AMERICA.  5!5 

torn,  at  the  present  day  in  some  parts  of  France,  where  it  is 
known  under  the  name  of  deformation  toulousaine.  It  is 
obtained  by  pressing  the  head  of  the  new-born  with  band- 
ages. In  the  department  of  Deux-Sevres  there  is  a  mode  of 
compression  different  from  the  deformation  toulousaine,  and 
other  examples  might  be  given  of  such  local  customs.  It 
is  curious  to  find  a  practice,  which  at  first  sight  appears 
so  strange,  existing  amongst  the  ancient  races  of  Europe, 
recurring  among  Asiatics,  as  well  as  among  the  most 
ancient  inhabitants  of  America,  perpetuating  itself  not  only 
among  the  Indians,1  or  the  wild  islanders  of  Polynesia,  but 
also  amongst  the  most  civilized  races  of  Europe.  This 
similarity  between  the  most  different  races,  even  in  the 
most  grotesque  practices,  is  a  fact  of  deep  significance, 
worthy  of  the  consideration  of  all  who  are  interested  in  the 
study  of  humanity. 

One  question  has  been  raised.  Was  this  depression 
always  voluntary,  or  was  it  often  the  result  of  a  method  em- 
ployed to  hold  or  to  fasten  the  new-born?2  Garcilasso  de 
la  Vega*  relates  that  amongst  the  Peruvians  the  child  was 
always  laid  in  a  wooden  frame,  furnished  with  plaited  cords, 
to  which  he  was  fastened  in  such  a  manner  as  to  check  all 
his  movements  ;  he  was  never  taken  out  of  this  bed,  even  to 
give  him  the  breast,  which  was  done  regularly  three  times  a 
day.  Was  the  flattening  of  the  skull  the  result  of  this,  and 
involuntary  ?  This  is  scarcely  probable,  and  it  seems  certain 
that  these  people  thought  to  add  to  their  beauty  by  such 
deformations. 

Others  have  gone  further,  and  look  upon  it  as  a  congenital 
peculiarity.  "  I  am  not  afraid  to  assert,"  said  Robertson,  at 

1  Hence  the  name  of  Flatheads  given  to  certain  Indians  of  Northwest 
America.  Compression  was  probably  once  a  general  custom  among  many 
Indians  of  the  northwest,  especially  those  of  Vancouver's  Island,  the  Quatsinos 
and  Tsimpsians,  where  the  perfect  form  appears  to  be  that  of  the  sugar  loaf,  the 
Chinooks,  Sahaptins,  etc.  Amongst  the  Indians  of  the  southern  United  States 
we  may  mention  the  Choctaws  and  Catawbas. 

*  Conant :  "  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races,"  p.   102 

*  "  Hist,  des  Incas,  rois  de  Perou,"  chap.  XII,,  Paris,  1744. 


P RE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

the  Congres  des  Americaniste's,1  "  that  the  flattening  is  the 
result  not  of  an  artificial  compression,  but  of  a  law  of  na- 
ture." This  is  entirely  an  error,  contradicting  alike  physi- 
ological laws  and  historical  facts ;  it  would  scarcely  deserve 
mention,  if  we  were  not  determined  to  place  before  our 
readers  all  the  hypotheses  which  have  been  put  in  circula- 
tion, however  unfounded  they  may  appear. 

We  have  now  given  a  summary  of  the  existing  informa- 
tion in  regard  to  the  human  bones  found  in  America,  and 
which  are  supposed  to  date  from  pre-historic  times.  What 
conclusions  may  we  draw  from  these  discoveries?  What 
general  laws  are  we  justified  in  evolving  from  them  ?  One 
primary  conclusion  naturally  presents  itself.  The  American, 
no  matter  how  remote  the  antiquity  to  which  he  may  be  as- 
signed, hardly  differs  from  the  men  who  now  inhabit  the 
shores  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific.  The  fauna  and  the  flora 
are  changed  ;  climatic  and  biological  conditions  have  under- 
gone profound  modifications ;  man  alone  if  not  entirely  un- 
changed has  yet  remained  without  serious  differences,  simi- 
lar in  his  bony  framework,  similar  in  his  physique  and  in  his 
pathological  affections.  Everywhere  he  has  had  to  submit 
to  the  stern  laws  of  life,  he  has  gone  through  the  same 
struggles,  and  where  possible  he  has  been  led  to  similar  pro- 
gress. A  second  conclusion  is  no  less  important.  Between 
the  men  of  the  New  World  and  those  of  the  Old  there  ex- 
ists no  essential  physical  difference.  The  unity  of  the 
human  race  stands  out  as  the  great  law  dominating  the 
history  of  humanity. 

Doubtless,  as  with  the  ancient  races  of  Europe,  those  of 
America  were  made  up  of  diverse  elements,  of  different 
varieties."  A  primeval  dolichocephalic  race  appears  in  the 
first  instance  to  have  invaded  the  vast  regions  included  be- 
tween the  two  oceans.  The  men  of  this  race  were  con- 
temporary with  the  huge  pachydermal  and  edentate  ani- 
mals ;  and,  as  did  their  contemporaries  in  Europe,  they 

1  "  Les  Mound  Builders,"  1877,  p.  34. 
*Bordier  :  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  January,   1881. 


THE   MEN  OF  AMERICA,  5  I/ 

passed  through  the  various  phases  of  the  Stone  Age.  Other 
races  arrived  in  successive  migrations,  the  first  of  which 
doubtless  dated  from  very  remote  ages,1  and  brought  about, 
amongst  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  America,  modifications, 
analogous  to  those  produced  in  Europe  by  similar  migra- 
tions. 

Doubtless  many  points  still  remain  obscure  and  insoluble  ; 
whichever  side  man  turns,  it  has  been  said,8  whether  he 
looks  into  the  past  or  into  the  future,  whether  he  scrutinizes 
the  sidereal  universe  or  interrogates  the  vestiges  and  muti- 
lated documents  of  the  history  of  life  on  this  planet,  if  he 
wishes  to  start  from  some  settled  or  assured  point,  if  he 
seeks  an  immovable  foundation,  a  corner-stone,  he  will  not 
find  it.  We  readily  endorse  these  words ;  man  by  his  un- 
aided powers  will  never  be  able  to  solve  the  great  questions 
of  our  origin  and  our  end,  of  primary  or  of  final  causes. 
The  intelligence  of  Man,  however  admirable  it  may  be 
shown  to  be  by  the  ceaseless  progress  of  humanity,  is  limited. 
The  infinite  stretches  before  him  ;  man  is  unable  to  grasp  it. 

141  Hence  we  find  Mound  skulls  with  this  ancient  form,  associated  with 
others  of  more  modern  type.  The  discovery  of  these  skulls,  with  characteristics 
so  much  like  those  of  the  most  ancient  of  the  pre-historic  type  of  Europe,  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  if  America  was  peopled  by  emigration  from  the  Old 
World,  that  event  must  have  taken  place  at  a  very  early  time,  far  back  of  any 
of  which  we  have  any  record."  "Letter  of  Dr.  Lapham  to  Dr.  Foster," 
Conant,  I.e.,  p.  108. 

*  J.  Soury  :  "  Int.  4  1'Hist.  des  Protistes  dc  Haeckel,"  p.  6. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   ORIGIN   OF   MAN   IN   AMERICA. 

IN  the  preceding  pages '  we  have  reviewed  the  existing 
knowledge  of  ancient  man  in  America.  His  temples,  fort- 
resses, dwellings,  monuments,  agricultural  and  hydraulic 
works,  his  personal  characteristics,  and  even  the  relics  of  his 
dinners  have  been  described  in  detail.  This  task  being 
ended  the  inevitable  question  presents  itself :  Who  and 
whence  was  this  primitive  man  ?  Was  he  original  to  the  soil 
of  the  New  World?  If  not,  how  did  he  reach  it,  and  what 
was  the  cradle  of  his  race  ? 

It  may  be  stated  at  the  outset  that  our  knowledge  of 
primitive  man  in  America  suffices  only  to  decide  that  he 
existed  here,  in  a  state  of  the  lowest  barbarism  and  but  little 
elevated  above  the  brutes,  at  an  exceedingly  distant  epoch. 
While  in  this  condition  he  has  left  his  traces  over  both 
Americas,  and  that  at  a  time  which  was  probably  contem- 
poraneous with  the  existence  of  the  mammoth  (elepJias)  if 
not  with  its  perhaps  somewhat  older  relative,  the  mastodon. 

That  this  primitive  man  was  not  original  to  America  is 
probable  on  biological  grounds.  With  those  who  believe 
in  the  spontaneous  generation  of  large,  highly  organized 
mammals  out  of  inorganic  material,  we  have  no  argument. 
Those  who  accept  the  results  of  science,  believing  that  the 
present  lawful  sequence  of  organic  nature  is  at  once  an 
exemplar  and  epitome  of  the  progress  of  nature  in  the  past, 
and  that  the  methods  of  the  Author  of  nature  are  best  com- 
prehended by  studying  them  and  their  results, — will  better 
comprehend  the  weight  of  the  reasoning  by  which  we  are 

1  For  the  present  chapter  the  American  editor  is  chiefly  responsible. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  5IQ 

led  to  decide  against  the  existence  of  autochthonous  man  in 
the  New  World. 

The  naturalist  thus  far  has  met  with  no  traces  of  the 
higher  anthropoid  animals  in  America  either  recent  or 
fossil.  The  American  monkeys,  it  is  admitted,  are  of  a  rela- 
tively low  structural  rank. 

On  the  other  hand  in  various  parts  of  the  Old  World, 
especially  in  Africa  and  some  of  the  Asiatic  islands,  anthro- 
poid animals  approximating  much  more  nearly  to  man  in 
physical  structure  are  well  known  to  exist.  The  fossil  remains 
of  anthropoids  of  a  tolerably  advanced  type  are  also  more 
numerous,  though  these  fossils  are  of  such  a  nature,  and  the 
region  possesses  such  climatic  features,  as  to  render  their 
preservation  at  all  rather  a  happy  accident  than  an  occur- 
rence to  be  confidently  anticipated.  The  insanitary  and 
tropical  character  of  the  countries  mentioned  is  also  a  serious 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  geological  research  and  the  collection 
of  fossil  remains  which  might  be  happily  preserved  in 
later  formations. 

No  biologist  of  standing,  we  believe,  would  affirm  that  the 
physical  structure  of  primitive  man  was  developed  from  that 
of  the  anthropoid  animals  now  in  existence,  or  now  known 
to  have  existed.  But,  other  things  being  equal,  it  is  prob- 
able that  such  a  physical  structure  would  find  more  favor- 
able opportunities  for  its  evolution  in  a  region  favorable 
to  the  evolution  of  allied  types ;  such  as  the  countries  re- 
ferred to  are  proved  to  be,  not  only  by  the  actual  occur- 
rence of  such  types,  but  by  the  climate  and  eatable  products 
which  would  serve  as  sustenance. 

What  changes  in  the  area  of  land  and  water  have  taken 
place  since  the  progenitors  of  man  appeared  upon  the  earth 
we  do  not  know,  and  any  hypothesis  must  take  this  un- 
certainty into  account.  But  judging  from  the  facts  as 
known  to  us  we  are  justified  in  deciding  against  the  prob- 
ability of  an  American  origin  for  the  human  race. 

Excavations  in  the  middens  and  shell-heaps  of  all  parts  of 
the  world  indicate  that  man,  at  an  epoch  when  his  culture 


520  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

was  of  the  lowest,  had  already  extended  his  geographical 
range  over  an  immense  area.  It  is  impossible  to  fix  a  date 
for  this  extension  of  the  race  or  to  apply  any  other  than 
an  approximate  geological  chronology  to  the  period  of  his 
wanderings  and  his  conflicts  with  the  cave  bear,  the  reindeer, 
and  the  mammoth. 

It  must  also  be  remembered  that  the  duration  of  the  state 
of  culture  we  refer  to  was  very  unequal  in  different  regions 
and  probably  with  different  races  or  geographical  assem- 
blages of  men.  To  this  day  in  the  remote  corners  of  the 
earth  it  still  persists  and  doubtless  is  not  very  different  from 
that  which  characterized  the  progenitors  of  the  Aryan  race 
before  the  earliest  dawn  of  civilization  anywhere.  It  is 
notable  that  this  persistence  of  savagery  goes  hand  in  hand 
with  an  inhospitable  environment.  We  find  it  in  the  bleak 
and  icy  deserts  of  the  north  ;  in  the  famine-stricken  wilds  of 
Tierra  Fuego,  where  the  struggle  for  mere  existence  is  so 
bitter  that  unproductive  members  of  the  community  are 
promptly  swept  away  by  cannibalism  ;  and  on  the  arid  sands 
of  Australia,  where  the  most  extraordinary  devices  to  secure 
infertility  in  most  of  the  male  members  of  a  band,  have  been 
resorted  to  in  the  attempt  to  repress  population  within 
limits  approximated  to  the  supply  of  food. 

From  this  fact  we  may  suppose  that  among  those  men 
gifted  with  a  tendency  to  progress,  such  of  them  as  found 
themselves  in  a  hospitable  environment  would  tend  to 
advance  in  culture.  On  the  contrary,  those  who  had  to 
struggle  for  a  bare  existence  and  live  in  a  constant  state 
of  reaction  from  their  surroundings,  would  find  no  time 
for  culture  except  that  directly  applicable  to  their  sus- 
tenance, and  would  be  more  likely  to  spend  an  occasional 
breathing-spell  in  idleness  or  sensual  pleasure  than  in  in- 
ventive or  aesthetic  work.  For  all,  in  their  early  stages  of 
culture,  long  enduring,  intense  labor  was  the  price  of  every 
thing. 

At  first  lawless,  hardly  even  social,  chiefs  and  leaders, 
except  as  heads  of  families,  were  unknown.  Religious 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  $21 

ideas  at  this  stage  could  hardly  exist ;  the  family  turned 
to  its  leader  as  the  herd  turns  to  the  sturdiest  bull ;  a 
crude  and  unthinking  materialism  born  of  man's  relation  as 
a  preying  animal  to  the  world  about  him  considered  as  a 
source  of  supply,  with  occasional  irrational  stampedes,  as  of 
wild  horses,  from  sudden  alarms  begotten  of  unfamiliar 
phenomena  ;  a  terror  of  the  darkness,  of  the  swift  torrent,  of 
the  falling  tree  or  avalanche  ;  rage,  jealousy,  fear ;  the  pair- 
ing instinct ;  gluttony  ; — these,  and  such  as  these,  were  the 
lights  and  shades  in  the  mental  radiations  of  the  savage 
brain.  Progress  from  the  real  or  formalized  family  to  the 
band  or  clan,  and  so  upward,  would  follow ;  its  phases  have 
been  classified  by  the  lamented  Morgan  and  many  others. 
Too  often,  however,  the  view  of  savagery  has  been  sub- 
jected to  a  strange  refraction  in  penetrating  the  haze  of  a 
later  culture  which  surrounds  the  observer.  Only  in  these 
last  days  are  we  come  to  recognize,  even  now  but  dimly,  the 
primitive  savage  in  his  lair.  As  man  developed  culture  he 
was  perhaps  more  successful,  more  physically  comfortable, 
but  not  more  happy.  It  may  be  said  that  physical  comfort, 
a  full  belly,  and  a  warm,  well-tanned  robe,  is  the  highest 
happiness  of  a  savage.  We  think  this  might  have  been  true 
for  the  primitive  savage,  who  was  not  comfortable,  but  not 
for  his  successor  who  had  begun  to  think  and  to  dream.  A 
mole  is  probably  happier  than  a  fox,  either  of  them  than  the 
primitive  man  who  had  begun  to  question  nature. 

The  primitive  man  was  a  slave  to  nature,  in  continual 
terror  before  dangers  which  he  did  not  understand  and  could 
not  guard  against.1  Nature  to  him  was  an  appalling  mys- 
tery out  of  whose  bowels  any  thing  might  issue.  He  lived  in 
a  haze  of  fetichism.  Not  a  leaf  might  flutter,  not  a  rabbit 
cross  the  path,  no  distant  thunder  roll,  or  raven  croak  un- 
seen, but  heralded  to  him  some  spirit  only  too  malign. 

Those  who  have  observed  in  a  distant  camp  or  remote 
village  of  savages  the  midnight  alarms,  the  whispered  fears, 
the  wild  unfounded  rumors,  the  cowering  before  the  most 

1  Prof.  W.  G.  Svunner  :  "  North  American  Review,"  June,  1884. 


522  PRE-HISTOKIC  AMERICA. 

simple  physical  phenomena  if  only  unfrequent, — only  those 
can  have  a  realizing  sense  of  the  horrors  nature  enfolds  for 
the  ignorant  yet  thinking  savage.  But  it  is  not  our  purpose 
to  trace  the  stages  of  mental  culture,  a  task  for  which  the 
material  is  yet  imperfect ;  though  glimmerings  of  the  truth 
have  lately  broken  through  the  mists  of  misconception  which 
have  so  long  prevailed. 

For  the  purpose  of  the  conservative  ethnologist,  desiring 
to  give  to  the  public  a  general  view  of  what  is  known  or 
surmised  with  a  degree  of  probability  on  this  difficult  topic, 
it  will  suffice  if  we  allude  to  the  physical  characteristics  of 
the  different  pathways  to  the  American  continent,  to  the 
indications  of  successive  waves  of  migration  in  America  and 
their  lines  of  march  ;  and  briefly  refer,  as  a  matter  of  curi- 
osity, to  the  myths  of  origin  of  some  American  tribes ;  and, 
as  a  warning  to  the  enthusiast,  to  some  of  the  preposterous 
and  unscientific  hypotheses  which  men  of  good  literary 
standing,  but  without  sound  anthropological  training,  have 
adopted  and  disseminated. 

The  physical  characteristics  of  the  American  aborigines 
are  generally  admitted  to  point  toward  affinities  with  people 
belonging  to  the  Pacific  region,  rather  than  with  those  bor- 
dering the  opposite  coasts  of  the  Atlantic  basin.  The 
nomads  and  fishermen  of  Siberia  are  more  like  hyperboreans 
than  any  existing  European  people,  and  certain  features  re- 
call the  Melanesian  inhabitants  of  the  Pacific  islands  rather 
than  the  African  negro  races. 

The  approximation  of  Asia  and  America  at  Bering  Strait 
lends  probability  to  this  hypothesis  on  the  north,  and  the 
prevalent  winds  and  currents  together  with  the  distribution 
of  islands,  help  it  on  the  south.  It  has  been  shown  '  that 
the  route  to  America  via  Bering  Strait  is  feasible  (though 
that  so  often  referred  to,  via  the  Aleutian  Islands,  is  not), 
and  in  glacial  times  if  the  shallow  waters  near  the  strait 
were,  as  there  is  some  reason  to  suppose,  filled  with  grounded 

'Contributions  to  "North  American  Ethnology,"  vol.  I.,  Washington,  1877, 
PP- 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  MAN1  IN  AMERICA.  $23 

ice,  there  is  no  reason  why  people  like  the  Eskimo  of  the 
present  day,  or  even  lower  in  the  scale,  might  not  make 
their  way  along  this  temporary  bridge  and  subsist  on  the 
marine  animals  which  probably  swarmed  along  its  borders. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  knowledge  of  navigation  no  better 
than  that  possessed  at  present  by  the  lowest  people  of  Me- 
lanesia would  have  enabled  a  migration  on  the  line  of  the 
thirtieth  parallel,  south,  to  reach  the  coast  of  South  America 
and,  in  time,  to  give  it  a  considerable  population.  A  differ- 
ent  distribution  of  land  and  water  from  that  at  present  ex- 
isting, is  a  possible  factor  in  the  problem,  but  of  which  it  is 
too  early  in  ocean  exploration  to  avail  ourselves. 

Squier,  Gibbs,  and  numerous  other  American  ethnologists 
believed  in  a  migration  from  the  west  to  South  America. 
A  northern  migration  is  almost  universally  considered  to 
have  taken  place.  Probably  the  American  races  entered  by 
both  gates. 

Of  their  spread  afterward  it  is  impossible  to  speak  with 
confidence,  except  as  to  the  fact  that  they  did  spread  over 
both  Americas  while  in  a  very  low  stage  of  culture.  This  is 
undeniable.  More  than  this  it  is  likely  will  never  be  certain. 
That  the  nations  of  to-day  which  now  populate  the  western 
shores  of  the  Pacific  and  many  of  its  islands  were,  either  in 
physique  or  culture,  the  same  as  we  know  them  is  as  little 
likely  as  that  the  original  invaders  of  America  had  the 
culture  of  the  Aztecs  or  the  physique  of  the  Apaches.  To 
say  then  that  the  Americans  are  derived  from  the  Chinese, 
the  Japanese,  the  Malays  or  the  Polynesians,  is  highly  un- 
scientific and  inaccurate.  Theoretically  it  is  probable  that 
the  language,  the  physique,  the  social  and  religious  culture, 
and  the  geographical  distribution  of  all  these  peoples,  have 
undergone  radical  changes  since  that  early  time,  and  that 
since  their  present  stages  or  any  approximation  to  them 
have  been  attained,  migration  to  America  has  not  been  in 
progress. 

That  successive  waves  of  migration  occurred  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt,  and  that  these  successive  bodies  of  immi- 


524  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

grants  differed  to  some  extent  in  culture  and  in  race  is 
highly  probable,  but  that  the  distinctively  American  culture 
which  may  be  traced  from  the  shell-heap  to  the  mound, 
from  the  mound  to  the  pueblo,  from  the  pueblo  to  the 
structures  of  Mexico,  Central  America,  and  Peru,  irrespec- 
tive of  race, — that  this  is  indebted  to  an  equivalent  foreign 
culture  for  its  chief  features,  is  utterly  incapable  of  proof  in 
fact  and  highly  improbable  in  theory. 

That,  irrespective  of  race  as  indicated  by  physical  and 
linguistic  characteristics,  certain  distinctive  items  of  culture 
have  spread  over  wide  geographical  areas  in  America,  has 
lately  been  sufficiently  shown,1  and  it  is  highly  probable  that 
something  similar  will  prove  to  be  true  of  many  more. 
From  the  nature  of  the  human  mind  and  the  natural  direc- 
tion of  its  evolution,  follow  very  similar  results  up  to  a  cer- 
tain more  or  less  advanced  stage  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 
At  that  stage,  wherever  it  may  differentiate  itself  in  the  nor- 
mal line  of  progress,  begin  those  features  which  character- 
ize a  stock  or  race  as  opposed  to  man  in  general.  Color  was 
probably  the  first  feature  to  become  distinctive,  other  modi- 
fications of  physique  in  turn  responded  to  the  environment, 
and  this  process  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  ceased  even 
among  the  most  civilized  races.  It  is  a  normal  natural  pro- 
cess, such  as  might  be  traced  among  the  brutes.  But  when 
man's  mental  powers  had  reached  a  point  when  he  could 
look  to  posterity  as  well  as  ancestry,  when  he  could  crystal- 
lize his  ideas  in  stone  to  convey  his  methods  and  memory 
to  future  generations,  then  a  new  category  of  facts  by  which 
he  might  be  classified,  arose,  and  by  these  is  he  most  truly 
differentiated. 

The  ordinary  idea  of  race  is  a  consensus  of  facts  relating 
to  the  two  categories,  and  as  a  means  of  classification  more 
or  less  confusing,  although  at  present  the  best  we  have. 
That  a  better  will  be  found  eventually  there  is  little  doubt. 

1  "  On  masks,  labrets,  and  certain  aboriginal  customs,  with  an  enquiry  into 
the  bearing  of  their  geographical  distribution"  Third  annual  report,  Bureau 
of  Ethnology,  8°  Washington,  1884. 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  $2$ 

The  origins  of  language  belong  to  the  first  category,  its 
final  differentiations  to  the  second.  By  the  introduction  of 
writing,  different  languages  have  been  petrified,  so  to  speak, 
in  various  stages  more  or  less  mature. 

By  the  physical  category,  America  gives  evidences  of 
many  races,  not  to  mention  innumerable  linguistic  stocks;  by 
the  mental  category  a  much  greater  degree  of  unity  is  indi- 
cated, as  we  think  will  be  evident  to  those  who  have  fol- 
lowed the  author  through  the  preceding  pages.  It  will  be 
still  more  plain  to  those  who  have  kept  abreast  of  the  recent 
wonderful  progress  in  the  essentials  of  American  anthro- 
pology, too  recent,  too  extensive,  and  still  in  part  too  tenta- 
tive, to  be  summarized  here. 

Attention  has  been  frequently  called  in  the  preceding 
pages  to  the  similar  manner  in  which  similar  needs  were  met, 
similar  artistic  ideas  developed,  and  similar  results  attained 
by  people  in  widely  separated  parts  of  the  globe.  That 
from  these  similarities,  no  special  homologies  can  be  drawn, 
is  a  fundamental  canon  of  scientific  anthropology,  from  the 
neglect  of  which  science  has  suffered  much.  That  these 
facts  testify  to  the  fundamental  unity  of  the  human  race  and 
to  the  analogous  processes  of  evolution  through  which  dis- 
tinct communities  have  reached  a  higher  plane  of  culture  is 
generally  admitted,  but  in  the  absence  of  connecting  links 
their  significance  goes  no  farther. 

That  these  analogies  should  be  found,  not  merely  in  the 
material  products  of  the  man's  hands  and  brain,  but  also  be- 
tween his  conceptions,  legends,  and  myths,  is  not  surprising 
or  unexpected.  From  many  such  cases  the  following  instances 
are  selected  with  the  caution  that  for  them  we  are  depend- 
ent upon  writers  not  always  free  from  mental  bias,  and  who 
often  derived  their  information  from  individuals  who  had 
been  subjected  to  missionary  teaching,  and  were  more  or 
less  familiar  with  the  myths  and  legends  of  the  superior  race. 
Notwithstanding  these  disadvantages,  it  will  be  seen  that  a 
general  belief,  for  instance,  in  a  deluge  or  flood  is  widely 
spread  among  American  races,  and  can  hardly  be  attributed 
to  Christian  teaching. 


526  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Ixtlilxochitl,  the  Christian  descendant  of  the  ancient 
rulers  of  Anahuac,  relates  that  after  the  dispersion  of  the 
human  race  which  succeeded  the  attempt  at  building  the 
Tower  of  Babel  (which  he  had  learned  from  his  Catholic  in- 
structors), seven  Toltecs  reached  America,  and  became  the 
parents  of  a  numerous  race.  The  Qquiches  speak  of  white 
men  who  came  from  the  land  of  the  sun.1  The  people  of 
Yucatan  believed  that  their  ancestors  had  come  from  the 
East,  across  a  great  body  of  water  that  God  had  dried  up  to 
let  them  pass  over. 

From  the  East,  too,  came  Zamna,  the  disciple  and  emula- 
tor of  Votan,  and  Cukulcan,  the  founder  of  Chichen-Itza, 
probably  the  same  person  as  Quetzacoatl."  Both  preached 
celibacy  and  asceticism  to  the  people  of  Yucatan,  and  were 
claimed  to  be  the  initiators  of  their  culture.  At  their  death 
the  grateful  people  erected  temples  to  them,  and  adored 
them  as  gods.* 

There  are  also  some  interesting  traditions  amongst  the  In- 
dians. The  Shawnees  are  said  to  have  claimed  that  the  an- 
cient inhabitants  of  Florida  were  white,  and  that  when  they 
arrived  in  the  country  they  found  there  buildings  and  cus- 
toms, with  a  civilization  very  unlike  their  own.  The  Natchez 
believed  that  they  received  their  religion  and  their  laws  from 
a  man  and  woman  sent  by  the  sun.4  The  Tuscaroras  are 
said  to  possess  a  legendary  chronology  going  back  nearly 
three  thousand  years ;  according  to  them,  their  fathers  were 
natives  of  the  extreme  north,  of  districts  far  beyond  the 
Great  Lakes;  they  established  themselves  upon  the  St. 
Lawrence ;  a  strange  people  came  by  sea,  and  long  and 
bloody  wars  ensued  between  them  and  the  new  arrivals.  It 
is  probable  that  all  these  traditions  have  some  foundation  in 
truth. 

1  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg :  "Hist,  des  nations  civilise'es  du  Mexique  et  de 
1'Amerique  Centrale,"  vol.  I.,  pp.  105,  106,  166. 

a  Cukulcan  and  Quetzacoatl  both  signify  the  serpent  covered  with  feathers. 

*  Landa  :  "  Relacion  de  las  Cosas  de  Yucatan,"  p.  28.  Herrara  :  "Hist. 
Gen.  de  los  Castellanos  en  las  Islas  i  Tierra  Firme  del  Mar  Oceano,"  dec.  IV., 
book  IV.,  chap.  II.  Cogolludo  :  "  Hist,  de  Yucatan,"  p.  178. 

4  Du  Pratz:   "Hist,  of  Louisiana,"  vol.  II.,  p.  175,  London,  1703. 


THE    ORIGIN   OF  MAN  IN   AMERICA. 

In  South  America  we  also  find  accounts  which  attribute 
the  origin  of  the  people,  or  at  least  that  of  their  civilization, 
to  strangers.  The  Peruvians  attribute  their  progress  to 
Manco-Capac  and  to  the  beautiful  Mama-CEllo,  his  sister 
and  his  wife,  who  had  crossed  the  sea  to  their  country.1  In 
another  part  of  Peru  it  was  believed  that  three  eggs  had 
fallen  from  the  sky ;  the  first  was  of  gold,  the  second  of 
silver,  the  third  of  copper.  From  the  first  sprang  the 
curacas  or  chiefs,  from  the  second  the  nobles,  and  from  'the 
third  the  people.3  Another  tradition  relates  that  a  white 
man,  wearing  a  long  beard,  had  taught  the  inhabitants  the 
art  of  building  houses  and  sowing  seeds,  after  which  he  dis- 
appeared, to  live  for  two  thousand  years  in  retreat  before  re- 
appearing upon  the  earth. 

The  Guaranis  relate  that  two  brothers,  Tupi  and  Guarani, 
landed  on  the  shores  of  Brazil  after  a  great  flood,  with  their 
women  and  children,  and  it  is  from  them  that  sprung 
the  races  bearing  their  names.8 

Other  traditions  allude  to  convulsions  of  nature,  to  inun- 
dations, and  profound  disturbances,  to  terrible  deluges, 
in  the  midst  of  which  mountains  and  volcanoes  suddenly 
rose  up.  Some  of  these  legends  relate  to  a  universal  flood, 
a  myth  "  spread  throughout  the  New  World,  from  one  pole, 
so  to  speak,  to  the  other." 

We  reproduce  as  nearly  as  possible  the  naive  account 
given  by  Bishop  Landa.5  "  The  water "  he  says  "  then 
became  swollen,  and  there  was  a  great  inundation,  which 
reached  to  the  top  of  the  heads  of  the  inhabitants ;  they  were 
covered  with  water,  and  a  thick  resin  came  down  from 

'Squier:  "Peru,  Incidents  of  Travel  and  Exploration  in  the  Land  of 
the  Incas." 

'Avendano  :  "  Serm.,"  IX.,  p.  100.  Desjardins:  "  Le  Perou  avant  la  con- 
quete  Espagnole,"  p.  29. 

"Guevara:  "Hist,  del  Paraguay,  en  la  col.  Hist.  Argentina,"  vol.  I., 
p.  76. 

4D'Eichtal  :  "  Eludes  sur  les  origines  Bouddhiques,"  ist  part,  p.  65. 

*  "  Relacion  de  las  Cosas  de  Yucatan."  Diego  de  Landa,  a  Franciscan  monk 
of  the  house  of  Calderon,  was  the  second  bishop  of  Merida. 


528  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

the  sky.  The  face  of  the  earth  was  darkened,  and  a  black 
rain  began  ;  rain  by  day,  rain  by  night,  and  there  was  a 
great  noise  above  their  heads.  Then  were  seen  men  running 
and  pushing  each  other  ;  filled  with  despair,  they  wanted 
to  climb  the  trees  and  the  trees  flung  them  far  from  them  ; 
they  wanted  to  enter  the  caves  and  the  caves  fell  in  before 
them." 

The  Chimalpopoca  Codex  '  also  gives  an  account  of  a  del- 
uge, in  which  men  perished,  and  were  changed  into  fish.  In 
one  day  the  earth  disappeared  ;  the  loftiest  mountains  were 
covered  with  water,  and  remained  beneath  the  billows  for  a 
whole  spring.  But  before  this  disaster,  Titlahuacan,  one  of 
the  Nahua  gods,  often  called  Tezcatlipoca,  had  called  Nata 
and  his  wife  Nena.  "  Do  not  busy  yourselves  any  longer,"  he 
said  to  them,  "  in  making  pulque,3  but  in  the  month  Tozotli 
hew  out  a  large  cypress,  and  when  you  see  the  waters  rising 
toward  the  sky,  make  it  your  home."  Nata  and  Nena  obeyed 
these  divine  orders.  They  fed  upon  maize  during  the  time 
when  their  boat  floated  on  the  water  ;  at  the  end  of  the  allot- 
ted time  this  boat  stood  still,  and  for  the  first  time  they  saw  a 
few  fish.  They  hastened  to  seize  them  and  to  roast  them 
on  a  fire,  which  they  made  by  rubbing  two  pieces  of  wood 
together.  But  the  gods  complained  of  the  smoke  which 
reached  them,  and  the  irritated  Titlahuacan  hurried  to  the 
earth,  and  changed  the  fish  into  dogs. 

Another  Mexican  tradition  *  tells  us  that  Coxcox  and  his 

1  Bancroft  /.  c. :  vol.  III.,  p.  69. 

1  A  fermented  drink  made  with  the  sap  of  the  aloe,  and  known  in  Mexico, 
where  it  is  still  in  use,  under  the  name  of  octli. 

3  We  give  Clavigero's  version,  reproduced  by  Humboldt  and  Lord  Kingsbo- 
rough  ;  but  according  to  more  recent  works  it  is  a  mistaken  interpretation  of 
the  map  of  Gemalli  Carreri  (Churchill  "  Coll.  of  Voyages,"  vol.  IV.),  from  which 
it  is  borrowed.  The  painting  dedicated  to  this  tradition  would  represent  the 
departure  and  migrations  of  a  tribe  amongst  the  lakes  of  Anahuac.  We  see  a 
bird  perched  upon  a  tree,  and  at  the  foot  of  this  tree  a  crowd  of  men  all  looking 
one  way  and  ready  to  start  on  their  journey.  The  name  of  this  bird,  Tihuito- 
chan,  and  its  cry,  Tihui,  which  signifies  in  Aztec  language  We  must  start,  are 
probably  the  origin  of  the  legend  which  we  relate  ;  but  it  is  not  mentioned  by 
any  of  the  more  ancient  historians,  such  as  Sahagun,  Mendieta,  or  Ixtlilxochitl. 


THE    ORIGIN   OF  MAX  IN  AMERICA. 

wife  Xochiquetzal  alone  escaped  the  deluge ;  they  took 
refuge  in  the  hollow  trunk  of  a  cypress,  which  floated 
upon  the  water,  and  stopped  at  last  on  the  top  of  a 
mountain  of  Culhuacan.  They  had  many  children,  but 
the  children  were  dumb.  The  great  spirit  took  pity  on 
them  and  sent  them  a  dove  to  teach  them  to  speak ;  this 
dove  hastened  to  fulfil  its  mission  ;  fifteen  of  Coxcox's 
children  succeeded  in  understanding  it,  and  it  is  from  them 
that  the  Toltecs,  Aztecs,  and  Acolhuas  are  descended.  We 
meet  with  a  legend  somewhat  like  this  in  Michoacan  ;  only 
the  name  of  the  man  preserved  from  the  deluge  is  different ; 
he  is  called  Tespi,  and  the  bird  that  is  the  harbinger  of  fine 
weather  is  a  humming-bird.  In  Guatemala  and  California 
the  most  ancient  traditions  of  the  natives  preserve  the  mem- 
ory of  a  great  inundation  ;  and  according  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  the  world  was  repeopled  by 
a  man  and  woman  rescued  from  the  waters  that  covered  the 
whole  country. 

The  Peruvians  also  have  several  legends  relating  to  a  great 
deluge.  At  Quito,  it  is  said  that  in  very  remote  ages  the 
waters  had  invaded  the  land,  as  a  punishment  for  the  crimes 
of  men  ;  a  few  of  them  had  been  spared,  and  these  had  re- 
tired to  a  wooden  house  on  the  top  of  Pichincha.  At  Cuzco 
the  sun  interfered,  and  hid  those  who  were  to  be  saved  in 
the  Island  of  Titicaca.  According  to  a  tradition  preserved 
at  Pachacamac,  the  entire  country  was  covered  with  water 
some  centuries  before  the  time  of  the  Incas ;  a  few  men 
took  refuge  in  the  mountains,  and  when  the  water  began  to 
go  down  they  let  loose  some  dogs,  which  came  back  wet  ;  a 
few  days  later  they  were  sent  forth  a  second  time,  and  came 
back  soiled  with  mud.  At  this  sign  the  men  knew  that  the 
waters  had  retired  :  they  left  their  retreat,  and  their  pos- 
terity peopled  the  country. 

A  still  more  strange  account  is  that  telling  how  a  shep- 
herd, noticing  that  the  llamas  passed  the  night  looking  at 
the  stars,  questioned  one  among  them  as  to  the  cause  of  his 
preoccupation.  The  llama  called  his  attention  to  the  un- 


53°  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

usual  conjunction  of  six  stars,  adding  that  this  conjunction 
was  a  sure  sign  that  the  world  was  soon  to  be  destroyed  by 
water  and  that  if  his  master  wished  to  escape  becoming  the 
victim  of  the  approaching  catastrophe  he  must  take  refuge 
with  his  family  and  flock  on  the  neighboring  mountains. 
The  shepherd  hastened  to  follow  this  advice,  and  withdrew 
to  the  loftiest  mountain 1  of  the  country,  where  a  crowd  of 
animals  had  already  preceded  him.  He  had  scarcely  arrived 
when  the  angry  waves  covered  the  earth,  but  the  mountain 
floated  like  a  boat,  and  rose  as  the  waters  increased.  This 
deluge  lasted  five  days,  and  was  accompanied  by  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  sun.  Then  the  waters  gradually  retired,  and 
the  shepherd  and  his  family  became  the  ancestors  of  the 
Peruvian  people.1 

Other  traditions,  chiefly  met  with  in  the  countries  form- 
ing the  present  republic  of  Ecuador,  make  two  brothers  who 
took  refuge  from  the  waters  on  the  mountain  of  Huacayfian, 
the  fathers  of  the  whole  human  race.  Their  provisions 
were  exhausted,  and  they  were  obliged  to  leave  the  misera- 
ble hut  where  they  had  found  a  refuge,  to  go  into  the  half 
submerged  valley.  On  their  return  they  were  astonished  to 
find  a  meal  prepared  for  them.  Curious  to  know  who  had 
thus  come  to  their  assistance,  one  of  the  brothers  only  went 
out  the  next  day,  while  the  other  kept  watch.  He  soon 
saw  two  birds  called  aras,  in  the  form  of  women,8  approach- 
ing, loaded  with  provisions.  He  succeeded  in  seizing  one 
of  them,  who  became  his  wife,  and  mother  of  the  human  race. 

Lastly  in  Brazil  a  god  named  Monan,  angry  at  the  corrup- 
tion of  men,  destroyed  the  earth  by  water  and  by  fire.  One 
man  alone  escaped,  in  the  destruction  of  all  living  creatures; 

1  According  to  some,  the  mountain  of  Ancasmarca  five  leagues  from  Cuzco, 
according  to  others  Mount  Huarocheri  nearer  the  sea. 

8  Molina,  "  Relacion  de  las  fabulas  y   Ritos  de  los  Ingas,"  MS.  des  arch. 
Madrid. 

*  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  who  relates  this  legend,  says  that  there  were  two 
women  called  Ara.  He  adds  that  the  people  of  this  province  retain  a  great 
veneration  for  the  Aras,  on  account  of  the  service  which  birds  had  rendered  to 
their  ancestors. 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  531 

Monan  took  pity  on  his  misery  and  gave  him  a  wife,  and  it 
was  they  who  repeopled  the  earth  after  these  terrible  events.' 

Similar  myths  are  found  among  various  Indian  tribes ;  the 
legend  of  a  deluge  and  of  a  saviour  and  benefactor  of  the 
human  race  extends  to  the  Alaskan  tribes  and  is  in  fact 
almost  world-wide  among  all  classes  of  men  in  some  form  or 
other.  No  dissemination  of  merely  Christian  ideas,  since 
the  conquest,  is  sufficient  to  account  for  these  myths,  which 
appear  to  have  their  root  in  the  natural  tendencies  of  the 
human  mind  in  its  evolution  from  a  savage  state. 

That  America  was  peopled  at  different  times  by  scions  of 
different  races  is  highly  probable  from  the  physical  differ- 
ences to  be  observed  between  the  remains  of  pre-historic  man 
and  the  complexion  and  features  he  bequeathed  to  his  his- 
toric descendants.  That  these  races  were  still  in  a  very 
low  and  undifferentiated  state,  other  than  in  their  physique, 
we  have  already  stated  as  probable. 

Among  the  crude  and  imperfectly  digested  hypotheses 
which  have  engaged  the  attention  of  untrained  ethnologists, 
none  have  been  more  popular  than  those  which  ascribed  the 
origin  of  the  Americans  to  full-fledged  races  such  as  we 
know  at  present  in  other  regions  of  the  world.  Among 
those  who  have  been  claimed  as  the  original  or  genuine 
ancestors  of  the  Americans  are  the  Chinese,  the  Japanese, 
the  Malays,  the  Egyptians,  the  Phoenicians,  the  Basques, 
the  ten  lost  tribes  of  Israel,  the  early  Irish,  the  Welsh,  the 
Norsemen,  some  unknown  Asiatic  freemasons,  and  other 
equally  unknown  Buddhists.  Volumes  have  been  filled  with 
the  most  enthusiastic  rubbish  by  men  upon  whose  ability 
and  sanity  in  other  matters,  nothing  has  ever  thrown  a 
doubt.  Fortunately  the  era  of  such  speculations  is  passing 
away.  The  scientific  treatment  of  anthropological  subjects 
is  no  longer  the  exception. 

The  "  ten  lost  tribes  "  still  linger  with  us,  and  doubtless 
will  continue  to  do  so  for  some  time,  probably  becoming  in 

1  P.  Thevet,  Cordelier,  "  Les  singularites  de  la  France  Antarctique  autrement 
nominee  Amerique,"  Paris,  1858. 


532  P RE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

their  turn  the  subject  of  investigation  by  psychologists  in- 
terested in  aberrant  mental  phenomena.  But  every  day  in- 
creases our  knowledge  of  the  true  constitution  of  savage 
society,  and  builds  a  more  enduring  barrier  against  the  floods 
of  pure  hypothesis.  Students  are  less  and  less  likely  to  be 
fooled  by  such  a  preposterous  fiction  as  the  so-called  history 
of  Moncatch  Ap£,  which,  within  a  few  years  has  engaged 
the  serious  attention  of  some  of  the  most  worthy  and  dis- 
tinguished European  ethnologists  ;  and  the  day  is  not  far 
distant  when  men  possessed  by  absurd  anthropological 
hobbies  will  no  longer  be  patiently  permitted  to  ventilate 
them  before  scientific  bodies,  but  will  be  placed  on  the  same 
list  with  the  squarers  of  circles  and  the  discoverers  of  per- 
petual motion. 

Many  of  these  hypotheses  were  discussed  at  length,  with 
a  view  to  their  refutation  in  the  French  edition  of  this  work, 
by  its  learned  author.  It  has  been  thought  best  to  omit 
the  discussions  as,  in  the  interval  which  has  elapsed,  they 
have  come  to  bear  still  less  relation  to  the  actual  state  of  the 
science  ;  and,  further,  because  American  students,  having 
the  advantage  of  being  on  the  ground,  have  pretty  well  dis- 
carded many  ill-founded  notions  which  still  linger  among 
the  less  enterprising  of  European  anthropologists. 

This  translation  being  intended  for  the  American  public 
has,  therefore,  been  brought  as  nearly  in  unison  with  the 
present  state  of  science  in  this  country  as  the  rapid  progress 
of  such  studies  would  permit,  and,  it  is  hoped,  will  convey 
to  many  general  readers  a  not  uninteresting  survey  of  the 
class  of  facts  upon  which  the  scientific  conception  of  Pre-his- 
toric  man  in  America  is  based.  That  there  is  much  to  learn 
is  self-evident,  that  a  beginning  has  been  made  is  certain, 
that  the  results  in  the  end  will  testify  to  the  orderly  reign  of 
evolution  here  as  in  the  Old  World  we  have  every  reason  to 
be  confident. 


APPENDIX. 

A. DISCOVERIES    IN    CALIFORNIA. 

WE  think  it  will  be  useful  to  give  a  summary  of  the  principal  discoveries 
made  in  California,  and  to  add  to  it  a  list  of  the  mammals  whose  remains  have 
been  found  on  the  coasts  of  the  Pacific,  in  strata  ascribed  to  the  quaternary 
period. 

Mariposa  county,  mastodon  bones  mixed  with  human  bones  and  stone 
weapons,  the  most  remarkable  of  the  latter  being  an  obsidian  lance-point,  five 
inches  long. 

At  Hornitos  and  Princeton,  stone  mortars  with  their  pestles,  one  of  the  mor- 
tars eighteen  inches  high  and  weighing  fifty  pounds,  being  one  of  the  largest 
known  ;  obsidian  arrow  and  lance-heads,  together  with  bones  of  the  elephant, 
horse,  and  an  indeterminate  species  resembling  the  camel. 

Merced  county,  numerous  implements  from  near  Snelling. 

Stanislaus  county,  an  elephant's  tusk,  ten  feet  long. 

Tuolumne  county,  wagon-loads  of  mastodon  bones  ;  numerous  stone  objects. 
In  all  the  auriferous  gravels  have  been  found  bones  of  extinct  animals  associated 
with  the  products  of  human  industry.  The  greatest  depth  of  the  excavations 
yielding  profitable  results  here  was  two  hundred  feet. 

Under  the  basaltic  deposits  of  Table  Mountain  has  been  discovered  a  human 
jaw,  together  with  two  lance-heads,  a  pestle,  and  several  stone  objects  resemb- 
ling our  ladles,1  A  human  skeleton  was  found  in  cutting  a  tunnel  beneath 
Table  Mountain,*  but  details  respecting  it  are  as  yet  too  incomplete  to  justify 
any  conclusion. 

A mador  county,  various  stone  objects. 

El  Dorado  county,  at  Shingle  Springs,  stone  mortars  and  mastodon  bones  ; 
at  Diamond  Springs,  mortars;  at  Spanish  Flat,  "Tools,  kitchen  utensils,  and 
other  indestructible  traces  of  man's  presence  and  activity,"  says  Voy,  one  of  the 
most  indefatigable  excavators  of  California.  Some  human  bones  have  been 
picked  up  in  a  bed  of  clay. — (Letter  of  Dr.  Boyce,  Nov.  2,  1870.) 

Placer  county,  near  Gold  Hill  numerous  stone  objects  ;  at  Forest  Hill,  a  dish 
hewn  out  of  very  hard  granite,  measuring  about  eighteen  inches  in  diameter  ;  at 
Devil's  Canon,  two  human  bones  beneath  a  thick  bed  of  lava. 

Nevada  county,  numerous  objects  fabricated  by  man  have  been  picked  up  be- 
tween 1853  and  1864. 

1 "  Scoops,  or  ladles  with  well-shaped  handles*." — Whitney,  "  Auriferous  Gravel*,"  p.  164. 
*  Proc.  Boston  Sac.  of  Nat.  Hist.,  vol.  XV,  1873,  p.  257. 

533 


534  PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 

Butte  county,  the  first  discoveries  were  made  more  than  twenty  years  ago  ; 
they  consisted  of  instruments,  weapons,  and  implements  of  the  most  varied 
form. 

Some  traces  of  the  contemporaneity  of  man  and  of  animals  of  extinct  race 
have  also  been  made  out  in  Trinity  and  Siskiyou  counties.  It  is  very  probable 
that  later  researches  will  complete  the  discoveries  already  made. 

The  bones  of  which  we  have  still  to  speak  were  none  of  them  found  in  their 
natural  position  ;  they  had  evidently  been  brought  down  by  tumultuous  waters, 
which  the  bones  of  the  strongest  mammals  alone  were  able  to  resist. 

Some  of  these  bones  have  been  picked  up  under  thick  beds  of  basalt  or  lava. 
In  these  beds  we  note  no  fissure  which  could  justify  us  is  supposing  that  the 
bones  can  have  gained  access  to  the  places  where  they  lay  after  the  deposit  of 
volcanic  material.  The  species  discovered  under  such  conditions  are  very  few. 
Thus  far  but  three  are  mentioned  in  any  thing  of  an  intact  condition  '  :  a  rhin- 
oceros (R.  hesperus)  related  alike  to  the  R.  indicus  and  the  R.  occidentalis ,  but 
decidedly  smaller  than  the  latter  ;  the  Elotherium  superbum,  a  species  probably 
related  to  the  Elotherium  ingens  of  Dakota  ;  and  lastly  a  pachyderm,  of  which 
all  that  has  been  found  is  one  fragment  of  one  tooth.  In  speaking  of  it  Leidy 
says  :  "  Apparently  the  fragment  of  an  incisor  or  canine  of  some  large  pachy- 
derm ;  not  the  mastodon  or  elephant,  and  probably  allied  to  the  hippopotamus." 

Quaternary  species  are  of  course  more  numerous.  Amongst  them  we  will 
mention  : 

Felides,  Felis  imperialis. 

Canides. — A  wolf  that  Dr.  Leidy  thinks  is  the  C.  indianaensis,  found  together 
with  the  megalonyx  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio. 

Bovides  ;  B.  latifrons. 

Camelides. — In  Merced  county  Voy  found  a  llama  (Auchenia  californicd)  of 
very  large  size  ;  some  teeth  from  the  Alameda  county  appear  to  belong  to  a 
smaller  species  (A  hesterna). 

Dr.  Snell  possesses  in  his  collection  the  molar  tooth  of  a  large  ruminant  found 
near  Sonora  ;  it  resembles  a  tooth  picked  up  near  the  Niobrara  river,  and  attri- 
buted by  Dr.  Leidy  to  a  species  to  which  he  proposes  giving  the  name  of 
Afegalotneryx,  but  which  is  very  likely  the  same  as  the  Procamelus. 

Caprides. — None  of  the  bones  found  belong  incontestably  to  this  group. 

Cervides. — All  that  is  known  of  this  group  is  a  metatarsus  from  Mariposa 
county,  belonging  to  a  deer  smaller  than  the  C.  virginianus. 

Proboscidians. — We  have  already  said  how  numerous  these  were  in  California. 
During  the  tertiary  and  probably  also  during  a  great  part  of  the  quaternary 
periods  they  wandered  freely  throughout  North  America  as  far  as  Labrador.8 
The  greater  number  are  related  to  M.  americanus.  On  account  of  certain 
slight  differences,  however,  Dr.  Leidy  has  thought  of  creating  three  new  species 
.)/.  mirificus,  M.  andium,  and  M.  obscurus. 

1  J.  Leidy  :  "  The  extinct  Mammalian  Fauna  of  Dakota  and  Nabraska,"  Philadelphia, 
1869.  "  Contributions  to  the  extinct  vertebrate  Fauna  of  the  Western  Territories,"  Report  of 
the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  Washington,  1873. 

1  "  Cart  loads  of  Mastodon  bones  have  been  accumulated  at  various  places  between  Sonora 
and  the  Stanislaus  river  at  workings  in  the  limestone  crevices."  Whitney  :  "  The  Auriferous 
Gravels  "  p.  251. 


APPENDIX. 


535 


Elephants  (Elephas  eolumbi,  Falconer)  were  less  numerous  than  mastodons. 
A  complete  skeleton  has  been  discovered  near  the  Fresno  river ;  its  vertebral 
column  was  more  than  twenty  feet  long. 

Equits. — Many  are  known.  E.  excelsus  found  at  Santa-Maria  oil  springs, 
E.  caballus,  recalling  the  horse  of  the  present  day,  and  lastly,  E.  pacificus,  the 
largest  of  all  the  Californian  species,  found  in  Contra  Costa  county,  and  which 
Whitney  even  ascribes  to  the  pliocene  period. 

To  complete  our  study  we  give  a  list  of  the  flora  whose  presence  has  been 
made  out  in  the  auriferous  gravels  and  deposits  of  Table  Mountain.1 

Fagus  antipofi  Aralia  zaddachi 

Quercus  eloenoides  Cornus  ovalis 

Quercus  convexa  Acer  bolanderi 

Salix  California  Ilex  prunifolia 

Platinus  dissecta  Zizyphus  microphyllus 

Ulmus  californica  Rhus  typhinoides 

Ulmus  affinis  Rhus  metopioides 

Ficus  microphylla  Rhus  dispersa 

Persea  pseudo-carolinensis  Cerocarpus  antiqua. 

B. SPECIES    FOUND    IN    THE    SHELL-HEAPS   OF    MAINE    AND 

MASSACHUSETTS. 


Mount 

Couch 

Eajcle 

Cotuit 

Desert. 

Cave. 

Hill. 

Port. 

Homo       .        .        .        .       '. 

.         _ 

_ 

_ 

I 

Cervus  canadensis     .... 

.          I 

_ 

_ 

_ 

Alces  americanus        .... 

I 

I 

_ 

_ 

Rangifer  caribou        .... 

- 

I 

- 

- 

Cervus  virginianus     .... 

I 

I 

I 

I? 

Ursus  americanus       .... 

.         — 

I 

— 

I 

Canis  occidentalis      .... 

I 

- 

- 

- 

Canis  (species  domesticate) 

I 

- 

I 

I 

Vulpes  fulves    ..... 

- 

- 

- 

I 

Felissp     

— 

— 

— 

I 

Lutra  canadensis        .... 

- 

I 

- 

— 

Putorius  vison  ..... 

- 

I 

- 

I 

Mustela  americana     .... 

- 

I 

- 

- 

Mephitis  mephitica    .... 

.. 

- 

- 

I 

Phoca  vitulina  ..... 

I 

I 

- 

I 

Castor  canadensis      .... 

I 

I 

I 

- 

Arctomyx  monax        .... 

I 

- 

- 

- 

Alca  impennis  ..... 

I 

I 

- 

- 

Alca  torda          ..... 

I 

- 

— 

— 

Anser  (species  duo)     .... 

I 

I 

- 

- 

I'Ucis  squaloideus      .... 

— 

- 

— 

I 

Morrhua  americana   .... 

I 

I 

I 

- 

Lophius  americanus  .... 

. 

I 

- 

- 

Buccinum  undatum    .... 

I 

I 

- 

— 

Busycon  canaliculatum  et  B.  carica    . 

. 

- 

- 

I 

Ostrea  edulis  et  Mya  arenaria     . 

I 

I 

I 

I 

Venus  mercenaria      .... 

- 

I 

i 

I 

Mytilus  edulis             .... 

I 

I 

I 

I 

Pecten  tenuicostatus  et  P.  islandicus  . 

- 

I 

- 

I 

Mactra  sp           ..... 

. 

I 

- 

- 

1  Whitney,  /.  c.,  p.  235. 


53* 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


C. — SPECIES    FOUND    IN    THE    SHELL-HEAPS    OF    IOWA. 


Mammals.     Bos  americanus  . 

Cervus  virginianus 
Birds.     Bernicla  canadensis  . 
Chelonian   Reptiles.     Chelydra  serpentina 

Trionyx  ferox      . 
Fish.     Pimelodus  (?)      .         .         . 

Embiotoca  (?)     . 

Mollusca.     Paludina  integra,  Say  . 
Unio  aesopus,  Green    . 

anodontoides,  Lea 

crassus,   Say 

ebenus,  Lea 

gibbosus,  Barnes. 

nodosus,  Barnes  . 

ovatus,  Say 

plicatus,  Say 

pustulosus  Lea    . 

rectus,  Lamark    . 

rugosus,  Barnes  . 

tuberculatus,  Barnes    . 

undatus,  Barnes  .         . 

ventricosus,  Barnes 


Keosoqua  Sabula    Bellevue. 

I 
I  I 

I 


NOTE   ON    RECENT    INVESTIGATIONS    IN     PALENQUE    BY   CHARNAY. 

The  occasion  of  conferring  the  Logerot  prize,  the  gold  medal,  for  new  ex- 
plorations in  Mexico  and  Central  America,  by  the  Societe  de  Geographic  of 
Paris,  is  fully  reported  upon  in  the  Society's  Bulletin  for  t!  e  present  year  (pp. 
268-277).  The  recipient,  M.  Desire  Charnay,  has  long  been  engaged  in 
ethnological  researches,  to  which  reference  has  been  made  in  the  preceding 
pages.  His  work,  which,  at  last  advices,  was  on  the  point  of  publication,  has 
been  crowned  by  the  Society  ;  and  in  the  report  of  the  committee  upon  this 
matter,  some  of  the  important  results  attained  are  briefly  summarized.  Like 
all  scientific  investigations,  their  tendency  is  to  refute  much  sensational  closet- 
ethnology  and  to  indicate  more  clearly  than  ever  the  unity  of  aboriginal  culture 
in  America. 

Some  of  the  facts  brought  out  are  of  such  interest  that  it  has  seemed  well  at 
the  last  moment  to  include  them  in  the  present  appendix.  Their  bearing  upon 
some  of  the  problems  discussed  in  the  chapters  on  Central  America  and  Mexico 
will  be  evident  to  our  readers. 

In  visiting  Palenque,  M.  Charnay  made  great  use  of  a  convenient  process,  by 
which  moulds  of  bas-relief  sculpture  can  be  taken  in  a  few  moments.  It  con- 
sists in  the  application  of  tow  sopped  in  liquid  plaster,  which  can  be  laid  on  in 
a  thin  layer,  the  threads  of  the  tow  making  the  plaster  extremely  tough  when 
set,  and  the  lightness  of  the  mould  greatly  facilitating  transportation,  always 
so  expensive  and  difficult  for  large  ethnological  objects.  An  extensive  set  of 
reliefs  from  these  moulds  is  on  exhibition  in  the  United  States  National 
Museum  at  Washington. 

The  moulds   of  M.   Charnay  have  entirely  done   away  with  the    elephant 


APPENDIX.  537 

sculptures  reported  by  Waldeck  on  which  so  many  pretty  theories  have  been 
erected.  There  is  absolutely  nothing  elephantine  there,  and  it  seems  that  the 
earlier  reports  were  based  on  a  misconception,  due  to  extraneous  vegetation 
lichens  or  stalagmites  which  have  encrusted  part  of  the  ruins. 

It  appears  that  Palenque,  so  fa*!  from  being  in  forgotten  ruins  at  the  time  of 
the  Spanish  Conquest,  as  has  been  so  often  stated  (after  Waldeck),  was  the 
city  of  Teoticcac,  the  religious  metropolis  of  the  Acaltecs,  where  Cortez  and  all 
his  men  might  have  encamped  in  a  single  building.  Another  site  discovered  by 
Charnay,  and  temporarily  named  Lorillard  City,  after  the  patron  of  his  explora- 
tions, is  decided  to  be  the  remains  of  Izancanac,  the  capital  of  the  State  of 
Acallan,  traversed  by  Cortez  in  returning  to  Honduras.  These,  as  well  as 
Copan,  Chichen  Itza,  and  Izamal  are  of  relatively  modern  origin,  and,  accord- 
ing to  Charnay,  cannot  exceed  seven  or  eight  hundred  years  in  age. 

The  explorer  decides  that  the  remarkable  edifices  of  Yucatan  and  Chiapas  are 
wholly  due  to  the  Toltecs,  immigrants  from  the  plateau  of  Anahuac,  after  the 
destruction  of  the  Government  of  Tollan  in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. The  differences  exhibited  by  the  various  monuments,  to  him  character- 
ize only  stages  or  special  developments  of  one  and  the  same,  state  of  art  and 
social  culture.  "However  this  may  be,"  says  Dr.  Hamy,  the  learned  and 
distinguished  archaeologist  of  Paris,  "the  affinities  demonstrated  by  Charnay 
between  Yucatan  and  ancient  Anahuac,  are  so  close,  so  very  numerous,  and  so 
much  in  harmony  with  the  teachings  of  history  that  it  will  be  indispensable 
hereafter  that  they  shall  be  seriously  taken  into  account  in  the  study  of 
American  ethnology." 


INDEX. 


Abiquico  (New    Mexico),  two   skulls 

from  near,  498,  499 
Acelidotherium  associated  with  human 

remains  in  Brazil,  25 
Acequias  near  Casa  Grande,  224 
Acequias  of  Peru,  422 
Acolhuas  (the),  II 
Acora  (Peru),  megaliths  and  chulpas 

at,  424 
Agriculture    amongst   the   Peruvians, 

423 
amongst    the    Mound  Builders, 

182 
Alabama,   abnormal   skull  of  a  child 

from  mound  in,  488 

mounds  near  Florence,  106 

shell-heaps,  48 

Alaska,  shell-heaps,  47 

Algonquins,  cannibalism  amongst,  62 

Amazon  valley,  cannibalism  amongst 

the  tribes  of  the,  63 
complexion  of  the  inhabitants  of, 

in  i6ih  century,  3 
Amelia  Island,  shell-heap,  48 
America,  first    discovered    by    Euro- 
peans I  ;  landing  of  Cortes  upon  the 

shores  of,  2 

in   the  l6th  century,  its  inhabi- 
tants, 3 
its  fauna,  3 

—  its  flora,  4 
Anahuac,   conquered   by   the  Aztecs, 

ix 
Andes,  complexion  of  the  inhabitants 

of,  in  i6th  century,  3 
Anercerty  Point,  shell-heap,  48 
animal     bones    associated    with 

human  remains,  28,  36,  37,  55,  535, 

536 
Apaches,    treatment    of  prisoners  by, 

62 
Aprouague    river    (Guiana),    polished 

stone  hatchets   from  the  banks  of, 


funeral    arms  from    the  Parana, 


and  from  the  provinces  of  Tucuman 
and  La  Kioja,  474 

Argentine    Republic,    pictographs    in 
the  Santa  Maria  valley,  455 

Piedras  Pintadas  in,  471,  472 

Arica,  mummies  from,  430 
Arizona,  mound  in,  83 
Arkansas,  ancient  mining  in,  180 

vases  from  the  mounds,  141 

wall  near  Helena,  104 

Ash  Cave,  Benton  county  (Ohio),  72 
Astronomy  among  the  Nahuacs,  305  ; 
Aztec  division  of  time,    306  ;    the 
Maya  and  Toltec  calendar,  306 
Atacama,  abnormal   skull  of  a  child 

from,  488 
Aymara,  6 

Aymaras,  sepulchres  of  the,  424 
Azilan,  the  home  of  the  Nahuatl  race, 

where  located,  284 
Aztalan,  mounds  of,  92 

tradition  concerning,  93 

Aztecs,  they  conquer  Anahuac,  II 

religion  of,   292  ;  the  god  Teotl, 

292  ;  the  god  Camaxtli,  293  ;  sacri- 
fice of  infants,  293 ;  obsidian  knife 
used  in  sacrifice,  293 ;  the  god 
Mixcoatl,  294  ;  the  god  Xuihte- 
cutli,  295 

their  migration,  285  ;  Chicomez- 

toc,  285  ;  founding  of  Tenotch- 
litan,  285  ;  wars,  286  ;  alliance 
with  the  Acolhuas  and  the  Tepa- 
necs,  286  ;  rapid  progress  of  the 
Aztecs,  286 

tribute  from  the  conquered  tribes 

who  hate  their  conquerors,  287  ; 
buildings  and  engineering  works 
erected  by  the  Aztecs.  288  ;  poems 
of  Nezahualcoyotl,  288 

Nezahualpilli  and  the  daughter  of 

Axacayatl,  289  ;  a  prophecy  of  the 
return  of  Quetzacoatl  which  greatly 
helped  the  Spaniards.  291  ;  death  of 
Nezahualpilli,  291;  Montezuma,  291 


539 


540 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


Aztecs,  Tlacatlaotli,  295  ;  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  temple  of  Huitzilo- 
pochtli,  296 ;  legend  concerning 
that  god,  296  ;  number  of  victims 
sacrificed  at  the  Aztec  festivals 
though  large  was  greatly  exaggera- 
ted by  Spanish  historians,  297  ;  type 
of  sacrificial  altars,  297  ;  belief  in  a 
future  life,  298  ;  some  burial  cus- 
toms, 299 

Aztec  Spring  (Colorado),  ruins  at,  215 

Bones  of,  bearing  traces  of  human 
workmanship  found  in  Buenos 
Ayres,  30 

Brazil,  cannibalism  in,  53,  58  ;  fertil- 
ity of  its  soil,  465  ;  Agassiz  on  its 
resources,  466  ;  flora  and  fauna, 
466  ;  degradation  of  its  natives  pop- 
ulation, 466 ;  the  native  called 
Guarani  by  the  Spaniards  and  Tupi 
by  the  Portuguese  (see  Guarani),  467; 
they  probably  had  more  civilized 
predecessors  to  whom  we  must  at. 
tribute  the  megaliths  and  rock- 
paintings  and  engravings,  469  ;  dis- 
coveries of  Herkman  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Pernambuco,  469  ;  intaglio 
sculptures  of  Para  and  Piauhy,  469  ; 
red  ochre  drawings  on  bank  of  Rio 
Doce,  469,  470 ;  inscription  on 
rocks  in  Ceara,  470,  471  ;  inTijuco, 
470  ;  the  Piedras  Pintadas,  470  ;  el 
Palacio,  471  ;  pottery,  472  ;  discov- 
eries of  pottery  on  the  island  of 
Pacoval-Marajo  and  at  Taperinha, 
472 ;  fragments  of  pottery  from 
near  Santarem  (province  of  Para), 
473  ;  Rodriguez,  discoveries  on  the 
Rio  das  Trombettas,  473 ;  the 
Muirakitau,  473  ;  weapons  and  im- 

-  plements,  475  ;  weapons  from  pro- 
vince of  MaranhSo,  475  ;  discovery 
of  a  jadeite  hatchet,  475 

Cairo  (Tennessee),  human  remains  en- 
closed in  baskets  near,  114 

Cakhay,  the  Indian  name  for  the 
mounds  in  Vera  Paz  (Mexico),  82 

Calaveras  skull  (the),  40-45 

its  resemblance  to   the  Eskimo 

type,  43 

it  contains  a   trace   of  organic 

matter,  44 

note  by  the  American  Editor,  45 

Calca,  tower  of,  417 

Calendar  stone,  found  in  Mexico,  306 
California  tribes,  degradation  of,  8 


California  shell-heaps,  50-51 
caves  as  burial  places,  09 

the  Hohgates,  64 

mounds  in,  83 

principal  discoveries  in,  533 

serpentine     cups,     168  ;    dishes 

from   vertebrae    of     Cetacea    from 
Santa  Barbara,  168 

skulls  in  the  shell-heaps  of,  480 

Canada,  two  glacial  periods  in,  19 
Cams  latrans  (Coyote),  4 
Cannibalism  amongst  North  American 

Indians,  62 

in  Brazil,  53,  58  ;  in  Florida,  58, 

59 ;     in    New     England,     59 ;     in 
Europe,  59,  60  ;  in  America,  61 ;  in 
Peru,  61  ;  in  Mexico,  61  ;  in    Scy- 
thia,  60  ;  on  the  borders  of  the  Eux- 
ine,  60  ;  amongst  the  Galatians,  60  ; 
in  Ireland,    60 ;    in    Gaul,   60  ;    in 
Rome,  60 ;  in  Scandinavia,  60  ;  in 
Terra  del  Fuego,  62,   63  ;   on  the 
Orinoco,  63  ;  at  Tahiti,  63  ;  on  the 
Amazon,  63 

amongst  the  mound  builders,  119 

Capulli  (the),  310 

Caribs,  Cannibalism  amongst,  61 
Carthage  (Alabama),  truncated  mounds 

near,  82 

Casa  Grande,  223 
Casas  Grandes,  see  also  Pueblos 

the  probable  Ethnic  identity  of 

the  builders  with  the  Mound  Build- 
ers and  Cliff  Dwellers,  499  ;    skull 
from  a  tumulus  from  near  the  Casa- 
Grande  of  Montezuma,  499 

Cave-Dwellings  described,  203,  205 
Caves,  human  remains  in,  24 

inhabited     by      Europeans      in 

quaternary  times,  69  ;  used  as  burial 
places  in  America,  69  ;  in  Durango 
(Mexico),  69 ;  in  Peru,  69  ;  in 
California,  69  ;  in  Missouri,  70 ; 
list  of  Strata  in  cave  on  Gasconade 
River,  70 ;  implements  in,  70 ; 
Shelter  Cave  (Ohio),  71  ;  Ash  Cave 
(Ohio),  72 ;  in  Summit  County 
(Ohio),  72  ;  in  Pennsylvania,  73 ; 
near  Louisville  (Kentucky),  74  ;  in 
the  province  of  Oajaca,  74 ;  near 
Greyson's  Springs  (Kentucky),  74 ; 
Salt  Cave  (Kentucky),  75  ;  Short's 
Cave  (Kentucky),  mummy  in,  76 
Cayenne  River  (Guiana),  polished 
stone  hatchets  from  the  banks  of,  27 
Ceara  (Brazil),  inscriptions  on  rocks 

of,  470 
Ceutla,  ruins  of,  354 


INDEX. 


541 


Central  America,  resemblance  of  its 
ancient  monuments  to  those  of 
Egypt,  14 

traditions  regarding  convulsions 

of  nature  in,  17 

number  of  mounds  in,  85 

earthenware    pipes     from    near 

San  Salvador,  152 

people    of,    260 ;   hieroglyphics, 

260-263  I   movement  of   population 
from  North  to  South,  260  ;  no  posi- 
tive evidence  as  to  date  of  Emigra- 
tions, 261  ;  the  Nahuatl  race.  262  ; 
the  Mayas,  262  ;  the  predecessors  of 
Mayas,  264  ;  the  Toltecs,  271  ;  fol- 
lowed    by    other     tribes    of      the 
Nahuatl      race,     271  ;     did     these 
people    come    from    the  North   or 
South  ?   272  ;   religious  wars,    274  ; 
the  Chichimecs,  279  ;  the  Tezcuans, 
281  ;  the  Tepanecs   and  Acolhuas, 
284  ;    the    Aztecs,     285  ;    religious 
ideas  of  the  Central  American  races, 
291  ;   of  the    Nahuas,  292  ;    burial 
customs  and  rites,  299  ;   mummies, 
301  ;     cremation,     302  ;      a     royal 
funeral,  303  ;  human  sacrifices,  304  ; 
mortuary    vase,      305  ;    astronomy, 
305  ;  divisions   of  time  among  the 
Aztecs,   306  ;    amongst  the    Mayas 
and   Toltecs,  306  ;  weapons  of  the 
Aztecs,  307  ;  defensive  works,  307  ; 
costume,  308  ;  government  probably 
democratic,  309  ;  the  Calpulli,  310  ; 
no  private  ownership  of  land,  311 ; 
descent    though    female  line,    311  ; 
marriage,      312;       no      patronymic 
names,  312 

education  of  children,  312;  slavery, 

312  ;  punishments,  313  ;  tribes  and 
tribe  government,  315  ;  initiation  of 
the  Tecuhtli,  315  ;  manuscripts  of, 
389 ;  private  life,  380  ;  knowledge 
of  the  arts,  381  :  decoration  of  pot- 
tery, 383  ;  obsidian  implements  and 
ornaments,  385  ;  ornaments  of  agate, 
coral  and  shell,  386  ;  conclusions  as 
to  their  culture,  386 

ruins  of  Maya  and  Nahuatl, 

architecture  distinguishable,  317  ; 
Maya  buildings  of  Chiapas  of  differ- 
ent style  from  those  of  Yucatan,  317  ; 
Maya  ruins,  monuments  of  Palenque, 
318;  hieroglyphics,  319;  niches  re- 
sembling the  Egyptian  tau,  320  ; 
the  arch  unknown,  321  ;  hypotheses 
as  to  the  age  of  the  Palenque  ruins, 
322  ;  the  temple  of  the  cross,  324  ; 


the  Palenque  tablet,  324,  325  ;  the 
cross  elsewhere  in  Central  America, 
327  ;  Copan,  328  ;  ruins  of,  330 

Central  America,  ruins  in  different 
parts  of  Yucatan,  332 

Lorillard  city,  333  :  differences 

between  monuments  of  Chiapas  and 
those  of  Yucatan,  333  ;  ruins  of 
Chichen-Itza  and  Uxmal,  334  ;  ele- 
phant-trunk-shaped ornaments,  335 ; 
representations  of  other  animals, 
336;  phallic  emblems,  336,  338; 
no  weapons  nor  implements  found 
in  the  ruins,  340 ;  Kabah  and 
Labna,  ruins  of,  340  ;  Zayi,,  ruins 
at,  340 ;  Chichen-Itza,  ruins  of, 
340;  bas-relief  found  by  Dr.  L. 
Plongeon  at  Chichen-Itza,  345  ;  de- 
ciphering the  hieroglyphics,  346  ; 
the  cara  gigantesca,  347,  348  ;  Iza- 
mal,  ruins  of,  349,  536 

roads  and  bridges,  349 

Nahuatl  ruins,  350  ;  pyramid  of 

Cholula,  350  ;  date  of  erection,  351  ; 
Xochicalco,  352  ;  temple  of,  353  ; 
fortifications  in  Anahuac,  354 ;  at 
Huatusco,  354  ;  at  Ceutla,  354  ; 
pyramids  near  Tehuantepec,  355  ; 
Tula,  ruins  of,  355  ;  discoveries  of 
Charnay,  356  ;  glass  and  porcelain, 
356  ;  temple  in  honor  of  the  god 
Huitzilopochtli,  358  ;  Tezcuco,  360 ; 
Quemada,  361 

Zapotecs  ruins,  364  ;  Mitla,  364  ; 

temple  of  Mitla,  365  ;  mosaics,  368; 
Cerro  de  Guiengola  fortifications, 
368,  sepulchre  at  Tehuantepec,  369  ; 
Santa  Lucia  Cosumhualpa,  ruins  at, 
371  ;  ruins  elsewhere  in  Guatemala, 
373  ;  at  Quirigua,  373 

Cerro  de  Guiengola,  fortifications  of, 
368 

Chaco  canon  (New  Mexico),  cliff 
dweller's  skull,  from  497,  498 

Chaco  valley,  ruins  in,  230,  231,  234 

Chacota,  bay  of,  mummies  from,  430 

mummies  from.  504 

Chamber's  Island  (Wisconsin),  platy- 
cnemic's  tibiae  from  tumulus  on,  493 

various  shaped  skulls  from  mound 

on,  487 

Chelles,  resemblance  of  its  palaeolithic 
implements  to  those  of  the  Dela- 
ware valley,  20 

Cherokees,  council-house  of,  191 

Chibchas  or  Muyscas  (the),  they  and 
their  country  described,  459  ;  Engin- 
eering and  architectural  works,  459; 


542 


PRE-llIS TOR  1C  AMERICA. 


fabrics     and    ornaments  :     pottery, 

459  ;  their  wealth,  460  ;  traditions, 

460  ;  legends  about  BOCHICA  simi- 
lar to  those    about   QUETZACOATI. 
and  MANCO-CAPAC,  460  ;  [a  gram- 
mar  of  their  language,  460  ;]  they 
worshipped  the  sun,   to  which  they 
offered  human   sacrifice,  461  ;   ruins 
near  Tunja,  supposed  to  be  the  town 
of  Sogomuxi,  461  ;    government  of 
the  Chibchas  461  ;    the  Zippas  and 
the   Zoques,    or  chiefs,  462  ;  burial 
customs,  462  ;    laws  and   penalties, 
462  ;    food     and     dwellings,    463  ; 
knowledge,  and  use  of  the  metals, 
463 ;     trade   and  coinage,    (?)  463  , 
monuments  and  hieroglyphics,  464, 
465  ;  Columns  near  the  junction  of 
the   Carare    and    Magdalena,    465  ; 
pictographs  of  the  valleys  of  Bogota, 
Tunga,  and  Cauca,  465 

Chichen-Itza.  ruins  of,  333,  334,  340 

Chichimecs  (the),  12 

• 278  ;  of  the  Nahuatl  race  but  un- 
like the  Toltecs  complete  savages, 
279  ;  their  religion,  280  ;  marriage 
customs,  280  ;  conquest  of  Anahuac, 
282 

Chicomoztoc,  establishment  of  the 
Aztecs  in,  285 

Chicuito,  megaliths  of,  424 

Chihuahua,  casagrandes  in  San  Miguel 
valley,  225 

low  type  skulls  from  certain  sep- 
ulchres in,  484 

Chillicothe  (Ohio),  mounds  at,  100, 
101 

Cross  on  skeleton  from  mound 

near,  176 

position  of  bodies  in  mound  at, 

112 

Chimu,  ruins  of,  395 

Chincha  Islands, gold  ornaments  from, 
68 

silver  fish  from,  68 

Choccequirao,  fortress  of,  419 

Cholula,  pyramid  of,  350 ;  date  of 
erection,  351 

Christiana  (Pennsylvania),  ancient 
soapstone  quarry  at,  51 

Chulpas  of  Acora,  421  ;  near  Palca, 
425 

Chunk  Yards,  190 

Chunkey,  game  of,  190 

Circleville  (Ohio),  mounds  at,  101 

Circular  mound,  skull  from,  485 

' '  Clark's  Works, "  Ross  county  (Ohio), 


Clavigero,  boundaries  of  Anahuac, 
II 

Cliff  Dwellers,  points  of  difference  be- 
tween them  and  the  Mound  Build- 
ers and  other  ancient  races,  255  ; 
the  Spaniards  notice  no  resemblance 
between  the  inhabitants  of  Mexico 
and  New  Mexico,  256  ;  a  sedentary 
agricultural  race,  257 

see    also    ' '  Pre-historic  Amer- 
icans," 497 

on   Beaver  Creek,   227  ;  on  the 

Colorado  Chiquito,  227 

causes  of  decadence,  258  ;  prob- 
able decrease  in  rainfall  the  most 
important,  258 

Cliff-Houses  described,  201,  202,  203, 
205  ;  on  the  Rio  Mancos,  208,  210; 
in  Mac  Elmo  valley,  214  ;  at  Aztec 
Spring,  215  ;  on  the  Hovenweep,  in 
MonJ.ezuma  valley,  217  ;  on  the 
Rio  de  Chelly,  216,  218  ;  Cave 
Town,  219;  in  Epsom  Creek  val- 
ley, 220 

Cloth  in  mounds  of  Ohio,  Iowa,  and 
Illinois,  177 

Coati,  island  of,  409  ;  consecrated  to 
the  moon,  409  ;  ruins  of,  409 

Coatzacoalcos  river,  numerous  large 
towns  discovered  by  Cortes  upon,  7 

Colonel  Island  (Georgia),  shell-heaps, 
48 

Colorado  Chiquito,  ruins  along  the, 
226 

Colorado  river,  ancient  ruins  along, 
228 

Complexions  of  the  Indians,  3 

Connecticut,  pipe  from,  164 

Connett's  Mound,  near  Dover  (Ohio), 
118 

copper  beads  from,  174 

Convulsions  of  nature,  traditions  re- 
garding, in  Mexico,  Central  Amer- 
ica, Peru,  and  Bolivia,  17 

COOK  (Prof.),  glacial  phenomena  in 
New  Jersey,  18 

Copan,  ruins  of,  328 

Copiapo  Valley  (Chili),  mummies  from 
huacas  in,  430 

Copper,  the  only  metal  in  common 
use  among  the  Mound  Builders, 
1 80 

Copper  mining  by  the  Mound  Builders 
on  Lake  Superior,  178 ;  on  Isle 
Royal,  179 

Council  Bluffs,  intrenchment  of  the 
Arikarees  at,  98 

Coyote,  the  American  dog,  4 


INDEX. 


543 


Cremation  among  the  Indians,  119 

amongst   the   Mound   Builders, 

117,  118,  119 

Cromlechs  described,  83 

Cross  in  Central  America  monuments, 

327  ;  at  Lorillard  City,  333 
Culture  of  the  Indians,  7 
Cumberland  valley,  cross  on  skeleton 

from  mound  in,  176 
Cuzco,  legend  of  its  foundation,  410  ; 

difficulties    overcome    in    building, 

411  ;  ruins  of,  411  ;  grandeur  of  the 

Sacsahuaman,     or     fortress,     412  ; 

aqueduct,    413  ;    the   temple,   413  ; 

private  dwellings  of  the  Incas,  414 
Cypress,  great  age  of,  35 

Dakota,  low  type  skulls  from  mounds 
of,  484 

Davenport  (Iowa),  sepulchral  mound 
at,  113 

Deformation  amongst  the  Mayas,  500  ; 
amongst  the  Peruvians,  501  ; 
amongst  the  Indians,  511  ;  the  cus- 
tom very  ancient,  512;  idols  with 
flattened  heads,  512;  means  em- 
ployed, 512  ;  health  nor  intelligence 
apparently  injured  by,  this,  513  ,  in 
Europe  and  Asia,  513  ;  inOceanica, 
514  ;  in  France,  deformation  toulou- 
saine,  515  ;  was  deformation  always 
voluntary,  515 

Delaware  valley,  palaeolithic  imple- 
ments from,  19,  20,  21 

Dog,  bones  of,  in  shell-heap,  49 

Dunleith  mound  skull,  comparison  of 
with  the  Neanderthal  skull,  483 

Elephant , trunk-shaped  ornaments, 335 
Ely  mound  (Virginia),  shell  pin  from, 

174 

Escoma  valley  (Peru),  chulpa  in,  427 
Eskimo,  they  passed  freely  between 

the  two  hemispheres,  I 
their  short  stature,  3 

manners  and  customs  similar  to 

those  of  pre-historic  man  in  America, 
especially  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Aleutian  Islands,  66 

Esquimalt,    dish    with    two    handles 

found  in  shell-heap,  52 
Etowah  river,  mound  on,  105 

Fasciolaria  g igantea,  172 
Fauna  of  America  (native),  3 
Fijians,  cannibalism  amongst,  6 1 
Flora  of  America  (native),  4 
Florence  (Alabama),  mounds  at,  106 


Florida,  discovery  of  a  human  jaw- 
bone near  Lake  Monroe,  33,  34 

river  shell-heaps,  57 

shell-heaps,  48 

shell   heaps,   platycnemic  tibiae. 

from,  493 

skulls  in  the  shell-heaps  of,  481 

Fort,  ancient,  92 

Fort  Hill  (Ohio),  mound  at,  89,  90 

Fort  Wayne  (Indiana),  burial  mound 
at,  112 

platycnemic  tibiae  from,  493 

skulls  from,  485,  487 

Frias  (the),  (Buenos  Ayres),  human 
fossils  on  the  banks  of,  29 

Funeral  rites  of  the  Nahuatl,  299  ; 
cremation,  302 ;  a  royal  funeral, 
303  ;  human  sacrifices,  304  ;  mor- 
tuary vase,  305 

Fusing  of  metals,  were  the  Mound 
Builders  ignorant  of  the  process? 
discoveries  in  Wisconsin,  181 

Garden  Beds,  181  ;  in  Michigan,  In- 
diana, and  Missouri,  181  ;  west  of 
the  Mississippi  and  on  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  182  ;  in  Louisiana.  182 
Gasconade  river  (Missouri),  cave  on 

banks  of,  70,  71 
Georgetown     (Cal.),     granite     dishes 

from,  39 

Georgia,  shell-heap  on  St.  Simon's 
Island,  47 

bird-shaped  mound  in,  123 

the  Messier  mound,  106 

Glacial  epoch,  two  periods  of,  18,  19 
existence  of  man  during,  19 

in  Kentucky,  18 

in  New  Jersey,  1 8 

in  North  America,  17,  18 

Glacial  phenomena  in  California,  18 

in  the  savannahs  of  the  Meta 

and  the  Apure,  18  ;  in  the  valley  of 
the  Amazon  and  Rio  de  la  Plata, 
IS 

Glacial  striae  in  New  England,  17  ;  in 
Ohio,  18  ;  in  Iowa,  18  ;  in  Michigan, 
18  ;  in  Wisconsin,  18 

Glassware  in  the  Tula  ruins,  356 

Glyptodon,  its  shell  used  as  a  dwell- 
ing by  primeval  man,  29 

Gold  Spring  Gulch,  oval  granite  dish 
from,  39 

Granville  (Ohio),  alligator  mound  at, 
125 

Great  Cheyenne  River  (Nebraska), 
mound  city  on,  186 

Great  Lakes,  pile-dwellings  in,  130 


544 


PRE-H1STORIC  AMERICA. 


Great  Miami  river,  mounds  along,  91 

Greenwood  (Tennessee),  94 

Greyson's  Springs  (Kentucky),  rock 
shelter  near,  74 

Guano  deposits  in  Peru,  ornaments  in, 
68  ;  their  age,  68 

Guanajuato,  spear  point  from  the,  22 

Guarani  or  Tupi,  the  native  race  of 
Brazil,  6,  9,  467  ;  characteristics 
and  language,  467  ;  analogies  be- 
tween the  languages  of  Guiana,  the 
Upper  Amazon,  the  Antilles,  and  the 
bay  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  467  ;  the 
Botocudos,-  the  Tapuyas,  theTupin- 
ambas,  468  ;  [description  of  the 
skull  of  the  Botocudos  by  Rey,  468] 
the  Guaranis  probably  had  more 
civilized  predecessors  to  whom  we 
must  attribute  the  megaliths  and 
rock  paintings,  469 

Guiana,  cannibalism  in.  6l 

inhabitants  of,  10 

piimeval  man  in,  27 

shell-heaps,  47 

Gulf  of  Mexico,  mounds  along,  82 

Harrisonville        (Ohio),        sepulchral 

mound  at,  116 

HASS,  the  Cahokia  (111.)  mound,  103 
Helena  (Arkansas),  wall  near,  104 
Hieroglyphics    in    Central    America, 

260,  263 
at   Palenque     319;    throughout 

Central  America,  375  ;  evolution  of 

hieroglyphic  writing,   377  ;  graphic 

system  of  Bishop  Diego  de  Landa, 

378  ;  the  Troano  manuscript,  379 
High   Rock  Spring,   Saratoga    (New 

York),  74 
Hill   Mound   (Ohio),    serpentine   axe 

from,  170 

Hohgates,  legend  of,  64 
Honduras,  cairns  near  San   Salvador, 

84 

mounds  in,  82,  83 

veneration  of  the  tiger  in,  7 

Hopetown  (Ohio)  mounds  at,  100 
Hoplophorus   euphratus.     H.   Selloyi, 

H.  minor,   found  fossil  in  Brazil  by 

Lund,  25 
Horse,  ancestors  of  the,  16 

of  American  origin,  16 

Hovenweep  (the),  ancient  ruins  along, 

217 
Huacas,  resemble  the  Mexican   teoc- 

allis,     395 ;     Obispo    huaca,    396  ; 

Moche    huaca,     396 ;     of    Copiapo 

Valley    (Chili),    430 ;    near    Arica, 


430  ;  on  Bay  of  Chacota,  430  ;  at 
Iquique,  433 

Huatasco,  fortifications  at,  354 

Huehue  Tlapallan  a  great  empire 
in  the  North  according  to  Mexican 
traditions,  13 

Hydrocharus  sulcidens,  associated 
with  human  remains  in  Brazil,  25 

Hyer,  the  ruins  of  Aztalan,  Wiscon- 
sin, 92,  93. 

Illinois,  shell-heaps  in,  56 

cloth  in  mounds  of,  177 

copper  turtles  from  mound,  177 

mound  at  Cahokia,  103 

mounds  in,  85,  87 

sepulchral    mounds     in     Carroll 

county,  120 
Stone  cists  in  Madison    county, 

"5 

Implements,  in  the  drift  near  Trenton, 
(N.  J.,)  20 

in  post-tertiary  alluvial  deposits, 

20 

polished  stone  hatchets  found  on 

the  banks  of  the  Maroni,  Sinna- 
mari,  Cayenne,  and  Aprouague 
rivers  (Guiana),  27 

of  the  neolithic  type,  from  Bue- 
nos Ayres,  28 

in  shell-heaps,  47 

from  the  Gasconade  river  (Mis- 
souri) cave,  71 

from  altar  mounds,  107,  108. 

of  the  Cliff  Dwellers,  245  ;  with 

the  exception  of  a  few  copper  rings, 
no  metal  implement  or  armament 
has  been  found,  246 

Incas,  6 

Indiana,  shell-heaps  in,  56 

burial  mound  at  Fort  Wayne,  112 

pipe  from,  165 

Indians,  arrangement  of  wigwams, 
78  ;  of  New  Mexico,  shelter  of,  78 

fortifications  of,  98 

cremation  amongst,  119 

their  differences,  187 

their  culture,  Creeks  and  Natchez, 

190  ;  Cherokees,  190  ;  Iroquois,  192  ; 
Mandans,  193  ;  Chippewas,  193 

camp,  76-77 

Intihuatana,  417  ;  of  Pisac,  418 

Iowa,  bones  of  the  Mastodon  mixed 
with  stone  weapons  found  in,  37 

shell-heaps  in,  56 

mounds  in,  82,  85 

mounds  near  Toolesborough,  84, 

"3 


INDEX. 


545 


Iowa,  skeletons  in  mounds  at  Daven- 
port, 113 

elephant-shape  stone  pipe  from, 

163 

copper  axes  wrapped  in  cloth 

from  mounds,  17? 

Ipswich  (Massachusetts)  human  bones 
with  marks  of  workmanship,  59 

Iron  among  the  Mound  Builders,  180 

Iron  (meteoric)  in  the  Little  Miami 
mounds,  180 

Iroquois,  cannibalism  amongst,  62 

fortifications  of,  98 

Irrigation  canals  in  Missouri,  129 

Isle  Royal,  ancient  copper  mining  on, 

*79 

IXTLILXOCHITL,  the  historian,  12 
Izamal,  ruins  of,  349 

Jadeite  hatchet  from  Brazil,  475 
Japan,  resemblance  of  its  prehistoric 

pottery  to  that  of  America,  139 
JONES,     examination     of    twenty-one 

skulls  from  Tennessee  stone  graves, 

488 
Juigalpa  (Nicaragua),  mounds  near,  97 

Kabah,  ruins  of,  340 

Keosauqua  (Iowa)  shell-heap,  56 

Kennicott  mound,  skulls  from,  of  de- 
graded type,  483 

Kentucky,  caves  as  burial  places,   69. 

human  bones  in  cave  near  Louis- 
ville, 74 

Salt  cave,  75 ;  Saunders  cave, 

75 ;  Haunted  cave,  75  ;  Short's 
cave,  76 

Kickapoo  river  (Wisconsin),  mounds 
on,  108-109 

Kickapoos,  cannibalism  amongst,  62 

Kincaid's  Hat  (Cal.),  stone  imple- 
ments near,  39 

Kitchen-Middens  or  shell-heaps  de- 
scribed, 46  ;  where  found,  47  ;  their 
large  dimensions,  47 ;  authorities 
upon  American,  47  ;  stone  imple- 
ments uncommon  in,  48  ;  bones  of 
animals  found  in,  49 ;  bones  of 
man  found  in,  51  ;  in  Oregon,  51  ; 
on  Vancouver's  Island,  52  ;  on  the 
Mississippi  river,  56 ;  on  Florida 
rivers,  57 ;  contain  shells  of  the 
Ampullaria  and  Paludina,  57 ; 
oysters  most  abundant  in  Danish 
shell-heaps,  57  ;  also  in  shell-heaps 
of  Cape  Cod  and  Maine,  57  ;  rude- 
ness of  pottery  in  Florida  shell- 
heaps,  58 


Kitchen-Middens,  Age  of,  64 ;  origin 
unknown  to  the  Indians,  64;  on  Point 
St.  George  (California)  attributed  to 
the  Hohgates,  64  ;  accumulations  of 
many  generations,  65  ;  those  of  Cal- 
ifornia more  recent  than  those  of 
Florida,  65 ;  differences  in  their 
contents  not  proof  of  different  races, 
66 ;  date  of  formation  estimated  by 
trees  growing  upon  them,  67 

Kokopas  (Indians),  cremation 
amongst,  119 

Koleemokee,  pyramid  of,  106 

Labna,  ruins  of,  340 

Lagoa  Santa  (Brazil),  skull,  descrip- 
tion of,  478 

Lake  Monroe  (Florida),  shell-heap 
with  human  bones,  58 

the  source  of  the  Mound  Build- 
ers, copper,  178 

Lake  Superior  mines,  stone  hammers 
in,  39 

Languages,  the  number  of  dialects,  5 

Aymara  and  Guarani,  5 

division  of  dialects  into  groups,  5 

resemblance  in  structure  of,  6 

La  Plata,  earthenware  and  arrow 
heads  from  the  banks  of,  27 

pottery  of,  472 

Liberty  (Ohio),  mounds  at,  100 

Llama,  its  utility,  3 

Llautu  (the),  419 

Lookout  Mountain,  mound  on,  92 

Lonllard  City,  ruins  of,  333 

Louisiana,  ancient  skeleton  found  in 
New  Orleans,  35 

reed  mat  found  in  salt  mines  on 

Island  of  Petite  Anse,  36  ;  associa- 
ted with  bones  of  an  elephant 

shell-heaps  in,  47 

mounds  in,  82 

garden  beds  in,  182 

Louisville  (Kentucky),  human  bones 
in  cave  near,  74 

Lowland  villages  described,  203,  the 
estufas,  204 ;  observation  towers, 
204 

Lund,  remarks  of  the  Lagoa-SanU 
skull,  479,  480 

MacElmo  valley,   ancient    ruins    in, 

214 
Mackinac  Island,  sea  shell  pendants 

from,  173 
Madisonville,  pits  at,  52,  53  ;  one  of 

them  contains  com,  53 


546 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERTCA. 


Madisonville  (Ohio),  skeletons  in 
mounds  at,  113 

Mahquahwitl  (the),  170 

Maine,  shell  heaps,  48  ;  bones  of  ani- 
mals found  in,  49 

cannibalism  in,  59 

Mammoth  Cave,  platycriemic  tibiae 
from,  493 

Mammoth  in  glacial  clay  in  Ohio,  19 

Man  on  the  American  Continent,  his 
great  antiquity,  14 

Manecas  (terra-cotta  statuettes)  in 
Honduras  and  Guatemala,  167 

Mandans,  fortifications  of,  98 

Manioc,  idigenous  to  America,  4 

Manuscripts  of  the  Aztecs,  the  Troano 
manuscript,  379 

of  the  Mexicans,  379  ;  different 

styles  of,  380 

Maranhao  (Brazil),  weapons  from,  475 
Marginella  apicina,  shells  of,  in  Big 

Mound,  St.  Louis,  117 
Marginella  conoidalis,  172 
Marietta  (Ohio),  mounds  at,  102 
Maroni  river  (Guiana),  polished  stone 

hatchets  from  the  banks  of,  27 
Massachusetts,  shell-heaps  in,  47,  48 

human   bones,    with    marks    of 

workmanship,  at  Ipswich,  59 

Mastodon,  15 

in  glacial  clay  in  Ohio,  19 

with  human  remains  in  Buenos 

Ayres,  28 

Matontiple,  mound  at,  105 

Maumis,  cannibalism,  62 

Mayas  (the),  12 

Mayas  (the),  262  ;  their  empire  and 
capital,  263,  264  ;  legend  about  the 
founding  of  the  confederation,  264  ; 
Votan,  264  ;  katunes  of  Maya  his- 
tory, 265  ;  manuscripts  of,  266  ; 
religious  sacrifices,  266  ;  idols,  268  ; 
metals,  ornaments,  and  weapons, 
269 

navigation  among,  269  ;  houses, 

270  ;  temples,  270 

crania  of,  artificially  deformed, 

500 

Megaliths,  424 
Megalonyx,  15 
Megatherium,  15,  1 6 
Menhirs,  on  mounds  at  Esquimalt,  52 
Mercedes  (Buenos  Ayres),  human  fos- 
sils near,  29 

Merom,  skulls  from,  483 
Messier  mound  (Georgia),  106 
Mexicans,  6 
Mexico,  city  of,  scraper  from  near,  22 


Mexico,  cannibalism  in,  61 

caves   as   burial  places,   69  ;    in 

general  they  contain  no  evidence  of 

previous  habitation,  69 

mounds  in,  82 

ancient  bas-reliefs  of  the  serpent, 

127 
Mexico,     resemblance   of   its  ancient 

monuments  to  those  of  Egypt,  14 
worked    stones   in    post-tertiary 

beds,    22 ;    hatchet    from    the  Rio 

Juchipila,  22  ;  spear  point  from  the 

Guanajuato,  22  ;  scraper  from  near 

Mexico,  22 
traaitions  regarding  convulsions 

of  nature  in,  17 

or    Tenochtitlan,    founding    of, 

285 

resemblance  of   skulls   from,  to 

those  of  the  Mound  Builders,  500 

Mica,  in  the  mounds,  109 

Mica  ornaments  (see  ornaments). 

Michigan,  mounds  in,  82 

ancient  pottery  in,   136 

collar  of  bear  teeth  and  beads  of 

birds   bones  and  copper,  from  near 

St.  Clair  river,  172 
Minnesota,  shell  heaps,  56 

sepulchral   mounds  on    the  St. 

Peter's  River,  121 

spider-shaped  mound  in     123 

Mississippi,  jar  from  near  the  Talla- 

hatchie  river,  168 

mounds  in,  82 

sepulchral  mound  near  Musca- 

catine,  119 

pottery   in  sepulchral  mounds, 

151 

shell-heaps  on  banks  of,  56 

Mississippi  valley,  mounds  in,  80 
Missouri,  Mastodon  and  arrow  points 
near  Bourbeuse  river,  36 

same  near  Potato  river,  37 

shell-heaps,  56 

cave  in  Pulaski  county,  70 

mounds  in,  82 

number  of  mounds  in,  85 

mounds  near  St.  I.ouis,  86 

mounds  at  Sandy-Woods   settle- 
ment, 95 

sepulchral  mounds  near  Trenton, 

114 

irrigation  canals  in,  129 

ancient  pottery  in,  135,  136 

clay  bottle  at  New  Madrid,  139 

pottery  jar  from,  139 

vase  in  sepulchral  mound  in,  142 

143 


INDEX. 


547 


Missouri,  vase  from  New  Madrid,  144 

vase  from  grave,  146 

cooking   pot,    148  ;    vessel   with 

spout,  148  ;  vessel  from,  149  ;  basins 

from,  149,  150 

cup  from  New  Madrid,  150 

pottery   in    sepulchral    mounds, 

151 

earthenware  pipe  from,   152 

red  vase  with  snake,  153 

fish-shaped  vase  from,  155 

vases  representing  man,  156,  157, 

158 

pipes  from  Mound  City,  164 

pipe  from,  165 

ancient  mining  in,  180 

skull  associated  with  tooth  of  a 

mastodon  from  New  Madrid  mound, 
482 

low  type  skull  from  mounds  of, 

487 

two  categories  of  skulls  authen- 
ticated, 488 

Missouri  valley,  mounds  in,  80 

Mitla,  ruins  of,  364 

Mixcoatl,  the  serpent  of  the  clouds, 
god  of  the  Chichimecs,  280 

Mobile,  shell-heap  50  miles  from,  48 

Monkey,  found  fossil  in  Brazil,  by 
Lund,  25 

Monks'  Mound,  103 

Monte  Cuyo,  near  Yalahao,  the  work 
of  man,  82 

Montezuma  valley,  ancient  ruins  in, 
217 

Mounds,  alluded  to  by  the  Spaniards, 
80 ;  first  specially  noticed  by  Car- 
ver (1776)  and  Harte  (1791),  80; 
Breckenridge  (1814)  wrote  about 
them,  80 ;  scientifically  described 
by  Squier  and  Davis,  80 ;  the 
mounds  described,  8l,  83  ;  near 
Campana  (Buenos  Ayres),  83,  84. 

classification  of,  87,  88  ;  defen- 
sive works,  88  ;  modern  cities  on 
the  sites,  of,  88 ;  at  Bourneville 
(Ohio),  89  ;  at  Fort  Hill  (Ohio),  89, 
90 ;  in  Clarke  county  (Ohio),  90 ; 
Clark's  works  in  Ross  county 
(Ohio),  91  ;  along  the  Big  Harpeth 
and  Great  Miami  rivers,  91  ;  Miam- 
isburgh  mound,  92  ;  Fort  Ancient, 
92  ;  on  Lookout  Mountain,  92 ; 
Aztalan,  Rock  river  (Wisconsin), 
92,  93  ;  at  Greenwood  (Tennessee), 
94  ;  at  Sandy-Woods  settlement 
(Missouri),  95  ;  on  Little  River,  96  ; 
near  Juigalpa,  (Nicaragua),  97  ;  gen- 


eral form  of  the  mounds  (for  de- 
fence) of  the  Mississippi  valley,  97; 
erected  as  permanent  fortifications, 
97,  98  ;  among  the  Indians,  98  ;  at 
Newark  (Ohio),  99 ;  at  Chillicothe 
(O.),  100 ;  at  Hopetown  (O.).  100 ; 
at  Liberty  (O.).  100  ;  at  Circleville 
(O.),  101  ;  near  Black  Run,  Ross 
county  (O.),  101  ;  as  temples, 
101  ;  at  Marietta  (O.).  102 ;  at 
Cahokia  (Illinois),  103  ;  at  Seltzer- 
town,  103  ;  at  New  Madrid, 
104 ;  at  Matontiple,  105 ;  on 
the  Etowah  river,  105  ;  the  Mes- 
sier mound  (Georgia),  106 ;  the 
pyramid  of  Koleemokee,  106  ;  in  the 
Cumberland  valley  (Tennessee), 
106  ;  at  Olympia,  (Washington  Ter- 
ritory), 106  ;  at  Florence  (Alabama), 
106  ;  as  altars,  107  ;  on  the  Kick- 
apoo  river  (Wisconsin),  108,  109 ; 
sepulchral  mounds,  1 10 ;  different 
positions  of  the  bodies  in,  in,  112  ; 
at  Chillicothe  (O.).  112  ;  at  Madison, 
ville  (O.).  "3  I  at  Davenport  (la.), 
113;  at  Toolesborough  (Iowa),  113; 
at  Trenton  (Missouri),  114;  near 
Nashville  (Tennessee),  115;  at 
Grove  creek  (Virginia),  116;  at 
Harrisonville  (Ohio),  116  ;  in  Utah, 
116;  Big  Mound  (St.  Louis),  117; 
Connett's  mound  (Ohio),  118  ;  in 
Florida,  lib  ;  near  Muscatine 
(Mississippi),  119  ;  in  Carroll  coun- 
ty, (Illinois),  120 ;  on  the  St.  Pe- 
ter's river  (Minnesota),  121  ;  mounds 
representing  animals,  123  ;  almost 
confined  to  the  Northern  and  West- 
ern States,  123  ;  bird-shaped  mound 
in  Georgia,  123  ;  at  Pewaukee  (Wis- 
consin), 123  ;  in  Dane  county 
(Wisconsin),  124  ;  "  Alligator  ' 
mound,  Granville  (Ohio),  125 ; 
"  Mastodon  "  mound,  125  ;  animal- 
shaped  mounds  in  Wisconsin,  126  ; 
snake-shaped  mound  on  Brush 
creek  (Ohio),  126  ;  on  the  banks  of 
the  Wisconsin,  127  ;  cross-shaped 
mounds,  129  ;  boat-shaped  mound 
on  the  Scioto,  129  ;  mounds  Obsid- 
ian in,  170 

Monuments  of  Mexico,  Peru,  and 
Central  America,  their  resemblance 
to  the  temples  and  palaces  of 
Egypt,  14 

Moreau  river,  mound  city  on,  1 86 
MORENO,  paraderosin  Buenos  Ayres, 
54 


548 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


Morton's  tables  of  capacities  of  In- 
dian skulls,  486 

Mound  Builders,  see  also  under  "  Pre- 
historic Americans  " 

Mound  Builders,  their  weapons,  see 
"  Weapons  of  the  Mound  Build- 
ers" 

Mound  Builders  in  the  Mississippi 
valley,  13 

•  cremation  practiced  amongst, 

in,  118,  119 

— —  cannibalism  amongst,  119 

irrigation  canals  built  by,  129 

the  ancestors  of  the  Indians,  130, 

131 

sturdy  smokers,  1 60 

method  of  executing  their  sculp- 
tures, 1 68 

their  clothing,  177 

territory  occupied  by,  183  ;  char- 
acteristics of,  183  ;  did  they  disap- 
pear ?  183  ;  or  are  the  red  Indians 
their  descendants  ?  J  83,  184 ;  all 
the  mounds  the  work  of  a  people  in 
about  the  same  stage  of  culture,  184  ; 
the  Mound  Builders  must  have  long 
dwelt  in  the  region,  184  ;  symmetiy 
of  some  of  the  mounds  as  evidence 
that  they  were  not  built  by  the  In- 
dians, 186,  187  ;  this  and  similar 
arguments  refuted  by  recent  re- 
searches, 187  ;  not  improbable  that 
sepulchral  chambers  were  used  by 
some  Indians,  1 88  ;  testimony  of 
Spanish  historians,  189  ;  the  natives 
of  Florida  and  the  Mississippi  val- 
ley lived  in  fortified  towns  at  the 
time  of  the  Spanish  invasion,  189  ; 
traces  of  structures  analogous  to  the 
mounds  found  among  the  Creeks 
and  Natchez,  190 ;  chunk  yards, 
190 ;  mounds  in  Western  New  York 
believed  to  have  been  erected  by 
the  Iroquois,  192  ;  apparent  differ- 
ences in  structure  between  the 
Mound  Builders  and  the  Indians 
tend  to  disappear  on  more  thorough 
examination,  194  ;  resemblance  of 
the  Mound  Builders  to  the  Aztecs, 
196  ;  estimates  as  to  their  antiquity, 
196,  197 

— —  bones  of,  481  ;  skull  from  New 
Madrid,  Missouri,  482 

Muirakitan  the,  473 

Mummies  in  caves,  in  California, 
Mexico,  and  Peru,  69 

Mummy  from  Chacota,  504 

Mylodon,  15,  17 


Nahuatl  (the),  race,  n 

cradle  of  the,  13 

Neanderthal     skull,    comparison    of, 

with  some  skulls  from  the  mounds, 

483 
Nebraska,    bones    of    the    mastodon 

mixed  with  stone  weapons,   found 

in,  37 

mounds  in,  82 

New  Almaden  mines  (Cal.),  skeletons 

and  stone  hammers  in,  39 
Newark  (Ohio),  mounds  near,  99 
New  England,  visited  by  Northmen,  I 
Newfoundland,     its     discovery,     52  ; 

shell-heaps,   47,     52 ;     uninhabited 

when  discovered,  52 
New    Jersey,    stone     hammer    from 

Pemberton,  22-24 

palaeolithic   implements   in,   19, 

20,  21 

flint  instruments  from,  171 

New  Madrid   (Missouri),   mound   at, 

104 

cup  from,  150 

position  of  bodies  in  mound  at, 

112 

vase  from,  144 

skull  from  mound  at,  associated 

with  tooth  of  a  mastodon,  482 

New  Mexico,  Indians  of,  78 

veneration  of  the  rattlesnake  in, 

127 

New  Orleans,  human  skull  found 
beneath  a  buried  cypress,  35 

its  probable  age,  35 

New  York,  discoveries  at  High  Rock 
Spring  (Saratoga),  74 

mounds  in,  82-85 

Neyba  (Peru),    sculptured   jaguar  at 

entrance  of  cave  near,  465 
Nezahualcoytl,  poems  of,  288 
Nicaragua  shell-heaps,  47. 

mounds  near  Juigalpa,  97 

Oajaca  (Province),  caves  in,  74 
Obsidian    cut    into    knives,   etc.,   by 
Mexicans,    169-170 ;     in    mounds, 
170 

Ohio,  bones  of  the  mastodon,  mam- 
moth, etc.,  between  beds  of  glacial 
clay,  18 

Shelter    cave,     71  ;      cave     in 

Summit  county,  72 

Ash  cave,  72 

The  centre  of  mound  building, 

84 

mounds  in  Athens  county,  86 

—  mound  at  Fort  Hill,  89,  90 


INDEX. 


549 


Ohio,  mound  in  Clarke  county,  90,  gl 

"  Clark's  "  works,  Ross  county, 

91 
mounds  at  Bourneville,  89 

mounds  at  Newark,  99 

at  Chillicothe,  at  Hopetown,  at 

Liberty,   100  ;    at   Circleville,   101  ; 
near  Black  Run,  Ross  county,  101 

mounds    at    Chillicothe,   Ports- 
mouth, Marietta,  102 

sepulchral  mounds  at  Madison- 

ville,  113 

Connett's  mound,   near   Dover, 

118 

alligator    mound   at    Granville, 

125 

snake-shaped  mound  on   Brush 

creek,  126 

cross-shaped  mounds  in,  129 

pottery  jar  from,  140 

heron-shaped  pipe  from,  163 

terra    cotta   figures   in   mounds 

near  the  Little  Miami  river,  167 

serpentine  axes  from,  170 

shell   ornaments   from    mounds 

near  the  Little  Miami,  172 

copper    beads    from    Connett's 

mound,  174 

cloth  in  mounds  of,  177 

low   type    skulls    from    certain 

mounds  in,  484 

Ohio  valley,  mounds  in,  80 
Old  Town  shell-heap,  its  age,  67 
Ollantay-Tambo,  fortress  of,  416 
Olympia  (Wash.   Ter.),  mounds  near, 

106 
Oregon,  shell-heaps,  51 

mounds  in,  83 

skulls  in  the  shell-heaps  of,  480 

Origin  of  man  in  America,  man  not 
indigenous  to  the  New  World,  518, 
519  ;  he  had  extended  his  geographi- 
cal range  over  an  immense  area 
when  his  culture  was  of  the  lowest 
kind,  520 ;  impossible  to  fix  the 
date  for  this  extension,  520 ,  ad- 
vance of  culture  unequal  in  differ- 
ent localities,  and  dependent  upon 
the  environment,  520  ;  origin  of  the 
family,  520 ;  primitive  man  a  slave 
to  nature,  521  ;  physical  character- 
istics of  American  aborigines  point 
toward  affinities  with  people  of  the 
Pacific  region,  522  ;  emigration 
possible  vid  Bering  Strait,  522  ;  also 
along  the  thirtieth  south  parallel, 
523  ;  it  probably  took  place  by  both 
routes,  523;  nothing  definite  known 


of  the  spread  of  the  emigrants  ex- 
cepting the  simple  fact,  523  ;  suc- 
cessive waves  of  migration,  523 ; 
emigrants  differed  somewhat  in  cul- 
ture, but  this  will  not  account  for 
differences  of  culture  in  the  pre-his- 
toric  Americans,  524 ;  stages  of 
progress  and  changes,  524 ;  lan- 
guage, 525 ;  analogies  in  develop- 
ment of  ideas  and  customs  not  very 
significant,  525  ;  myths  and  legends, 
526  ;  legends  of  the  Toltecs  and  the 
Qquiches,  Zamna,  Cukulcan,  and 
Quetzacoatl,  526 ;  legends  of  the 
Shawnees,  the  Natchez,  the  Tusca- 
roras,  526 ;  the  Peruvians  and 
Manco-Capac  and  Mama-CEllo,  527; 
tradition  of  the  Guaranis,  527 ; 
other  legends,  527 ;  legends  about 
floods,  527,  528,  529,  530,  531  ; 
crude  hypotheses  regarding  ances- 
tors of  the  Americans,  531 
Ornaments  of  the  Mound  Builders, 
171 ;  near  St.  Clair  River  (Michigan), 
171 ;  copper  ornaments  in  Ten- 
nessee, 172;  mica  ornaments  at 
Grave  Creek  (Virginia),  172 ;  on 
the  Little  Miami  (Ohio),  172  ;  shell 
ornaments,  172  ;  from  Tennessee, 

173  ;    from  Mackinac  Island,   173  ; 
shell  pin  from  Ely  mound  (Virginia), 
174 ;     polished     stone    ornaments, 

174  ;      from     Swanton    (Vermont), 
174 ;  copper  beads  from   Connett's 
mound  (Ohio),  174,  175;  celts,  175  ; 
copper  cross  at  Zollicoffer  Hill,  175- 
177  ;  copper  turtles  in  Illinois,  177  ; 
skin  with  copper  beads,  178 

Osceola  mound,  human  remains  prov- 
ing cannibalism,  59 

Otumba,  resemblance  of  skulls  from, 
to  those  of  the  Mound  Builders, 
500 

Ouitotos,  cannibalism  among,  63 

Ozark  mountains,  ancient  mining  in 
the,  1 80 

Ozark  hills,  covered  with  cairns,  84 

Pachacamac,  ruins  of,  392  ;  cemetery 

at,  433 

Palca  (Peru),  chulpa  at,  425 
Palenque,  monuments  of,  318 
Pampas  (the),  human  remains    found 
in,  28.  29,  30,  31 

theories  of  Darwin,  Burmeister, 

Bravard,  Ameghino,  D'Orbigny,  re- 
garding their  geological  age  and 
method  of  formation,  31,  32 


550 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


Para  (Brazil),  intaglio,  sculptures  of, 
469 

Paraderos  of  Patagonia,  triangular  ar- 
row-points in,  27 

ol  La  Plata  and  Buenos  Ayres,  54, 

55 

Parana  (the),  paradero  on,  54 ;  re- 
markable implements  in  the,  55 

discoveries  of  arms  of  plastic 

clay  near  the  mouth  of,  474 

Patagonia,  ancient  men  of  small  stat- 
ure and  dolichocephalic,  505 

arrow-points    in    the    paraderos 

of,  27  ;    some   resemble   European, 
others  Peruvian  types,  27 

discovery  of  a  skull  on  the  banks 

of  the  Rio  Negro,  32 

shell-heaps,  47 

mounds  in,  83 

deformation     of     Tehuelches, 

skulls  from,  511 

Patagonians,  their  lofty  stature,  3,  10 
Paucar-Tambo,  tombs  in  the  valley  of, 

435 

Pemberton  (New  Jersey),  stone  ham- 
mer from,  22,  24 

Pennsylvania,  ancient  soapst.one  quar- 
ry at  Christiana,  Lancaster  county, 

51 

cannibalism  in,  61 

deposits  of  guano  containing  gold 

and  silver  images,  68 

caves  as  burial  places,  69 

cave  with  human  remains  on  the 

Susquehanna,  73 

mounds  in,  8l,  82 

mounds  in  Pike  county,  86 

human  remains  enclosed  in  bas- 
kets, 114 

Peru,  the  country  described,  387  ;  the 
empire  of  the  Incas,  388  ;  Tavan- 
tisuyu  the  real  name,  388 ;  the 
region  defined,  388  ;  the  origin  of 
the  Incas,  389 ;  Aymaras  and 
Qquichuas,  390 ;  Manco-Capac, 
389,  391  ;  Atahualpa,  391  ;  landing 
of  Pizarro,  391  ;  ruins  of  Peru,  392  ; 
Pachacamac,  392  ;  the  Chimus,  394  ; 
Montesinos,  accounts  of,  395  ;  the 
city  of  Chimu,  395;  "huacas," 
395,  Obispo  huaca,  396;  huaca  of 
Moche,  396 ;  necropolis  of  Chimu, 
399  ;  el  presidio,  399 ;  private 
houses,  400 ;  Tiaguanaco.  400 ; 
monoliths,  401  ;  of  earlier  date  than 
the  Incas,  401  ;  were  the  builders 
of  Tiaguanaco  related  to  the  Qqui- 
chuas ?  406  ;  Lake  Titicaca,  406  ; 


island  of  Titicaca,  406  ;  ruins  on, 
407  ;  buildings  erected  by  Tupac- 
Yupanqui,  the  eleventh  Inca,  408  ; 
island  of  Coati,  ruins  of,  409  ; 
island  of  Soto,  410  ;  Cuzco,  legend 
of  its  foundation,  410 ;  difficulties 
of  building,  411  ;  ruins  of,  411  ; 
grandeur  of  the  Sacsahuaman,  or 
fortress,  412  ;  aqueduct,  413  ;  the 
temple,  413 ;  private  dwellings  of 
the  Incas,  414  ;  fortresses  of  Peru, 
415;  ruins  on  the  Ucayali,  415  ;  for- 
tress of  Ollantay-Tambo,  416  ;  the 
tower  of  Calca,  417  ;  the  valley  of 
Pauca-Tambo  and  the  fortress  of 
Pisac,  417;  intihuatana,  417;  the 
fortress  of  Piquillacta,  419 ;  the 
fortress  of  Choccequirao,  419  ;  roads 
of  Peru,  421  ;  reservoirs  and  ace- 
quias,  422  ;  in  the  valley  of  La  Ne- 
pana,  422  ;  in  Huanuco  Viejo,  423  ; 
agriculture,  423  ;  funeral  rites,  424  ; 
sepulchres  of  the  Aymaras,  424 ; 
megaliths,  424 ,  megaliths  of  Vil- 
cabamba  and  Chicuito,  424  ;  mega- 
liths and  chulpas  at  Acora,  424 ; 
chulpa  near  Palca,  425  ;  chulpas 
of  the  basin  of  Lake  Titicaca,  426  ; 
near  Tiuhuani  in  the  Escoma  val- 
ley, 427  ,  burial  customs  at  time  of 
conquest,  427  ;  burial  customs  on 
the  Pacific  coast,  428  ;  mummies 
from  Arica  and  the  Bay  of  Cha- 
cota,  430;  method  of  preserving  the 
bodies,  430 ;  contents  of  tombs, 
431  ;  huaca  at  Iquique,  433  ;  ceme- 
tery at  Pachacamac,  433  ;  caves  as 
burial  places,  435  ;  Tantama-Mar- 
ca,  435  ;  tombs  in  the  valley  of 
Pauca-Tambo,  435  ;  infernillos, 
435  ;  mano  Colorado,  435  ;  religious 
ideas  of  the  Peruvians,  435;  Hanan- 
pacha  and  Urupacha,  436 ;  nature 
worship  and  inferor  gods,  436 ;  a 
Deus  ignotus,  437  ;  human  sacrifice, 
437  ;  government  of  the  Incas,  438  ; 
the  curacas,  438  ;  penal  laws,  439  ; 
marriage.  439  ;  property,  440 ;  do- 
mestic animals,  440 ;  dwellings, 
441  ;  results  of  the  form  of  govern- 
ment, 441  ;  pottery,  442  ;  resem- 
blance to  early  European  pottery, 
444;  vases  from  Chimbote  and  San- 
ta, 445  ;  the  silvador,  446  ;  musical 
instruments,  449  ;  cloth,  449 ;  the 
art  of  dyeing,  449  ;  mines  and 
mining,  450 ;  the  jewellers'  art, 
450;  iron  unknown,  451;  copper 


INDEX. 


55* 


implements,  weapons,  452  ;  batons, 
453  ;  Pintados  or  inscriptions,  453  ; 
Peruvians  unacquainted  with  any 
system  of  writing  at  time  of  con- 
quest, 456  ;  quipos,  457  ;  means  of 
transmitting  the  orders  of  the  Incas 
458 

Peru,  resemblance  of  its  ancient 
monuments  to  those  of  Egypt,  14 

traditions  regarding  convulsions 

of  nature  in,  17 

mounds  in,  83 

Peruvians.  (See  also  under  ' '  Pre-his- 
toric  Americans.") 

Pewaukee  (Wisconsin),  animal-shaped 
mounds  at,  123 

Phallic  cultus  in  the  New  World,    159 

Piauhy  (Brazil),  intaglio  sculptures  of, 
469 

Pictography,  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers, 
246 ;  on  boulders  in  Arizona,  247  ; 
on  the  banks  of  the  San  Juan,  248  ; 
near  the  MacElmo,  248  ;  near  the 
Pecos  ruins,  248  ;  on  the  Puerco 
and  Zuni  rivers,  249 ;  near  Salt 
Lake  City,  249  ;  in  Licking  valley, 
250 ;  in  Cuyahoga  and  Belmont 
counties,  250 ;  in  Vermont,  250 ; 
in  Nicaragua,  250 ;  in  Oajaca, 
251  ;  in  Sonora,  251  ;  in  Colum- 
bia, 251  ;  in  Venezuela,  251 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  251 
Nevada  and  California,  251 
Tennessee,  254  ;  in  South  America, 
254  ;  in  Africa,  252,  253,  254 

Piedras  Pintadas,  470 

Pinart,  skull  discovered  by,  in  a 
tumulus  near  the  Casa-Grande  of 
Montezuma,  499 

Piquillacta,  fortress  of,  419 

Pisac,  fortress  of,  417 

Platycnemia,  among  the  Mound 
Builders,  492,  493 ;  its  possible 
cause,  494  ;  among  the  early  Euro- 
peans, 494 

Popol  Vuh  (the),  144 

Porcelain  in  the  Tula  ruins,  356 

Porto  Seguro,  landing  of  Cabral 
at,  9 

Portuguese,  part  taken  by,  in  the  dis- 
covery of  the  New  World,  8 

Potato  River  (Missouri),  mastodon  and 
arrow-points  near,  37 

Pottery  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers  and  the 
inhabitants  of  the  pueblos,  240  ; 
great  quantity  of,  241  ;  its  superior- 
ity to  that  of  the  Mound  Builders, 
242  ;  jar  found  in  Utah,  242  ;  it 


was  baked,   243  ;  and  covered  with 
a  varnish,  243 
Pottery    of   the     inhabitants   of    the 

pueblos,  its  decoration,  244 
Pottery  of  the  Peruvians,  442 
Pottery,  weapons,  and  ornaments : 
— Pottery  among  the  first  inven- 
tions of  the  human  race,  133  ; 
moulded  on  gourds  in  Florida,  134  ; 
in  the  mounds  of  St.  Louis,  135  ; 
at  Sandy  Woods,  136  ;  in  Michigan, 
136  ;  in  Vermont,  136,  137  ;  Amer- 
ican pottery  superior  to  European, 
136  ;  method  of  baking,  137  ;  em- 
ployment of  moulds,  138  ;  size  of 
the  pots,  138  ;  the  potter's  wheel 
unknown,  138  ;  bottle  in  Missouri, 

139  ;  in   Japan,    139  ;  jar  in  Ohio, 

140  ;  vase  in  Arkansas,  141  ;  means 
of   coloring,   141  ;    vase    in    sepul- 
chral mound  in  Missouri,  142  ;  or- 
namentation of,   142,   143  ;  vase  at 
New  Madrid  (Missouri),   144  ;  vase 
in  child's  grave,    Tennessee,   145  ; 
vase   from    Missouri    grave,     146  ; 
vase  with  handles  from  Tennessee, 
147 ;    cooking   pot   from  Missouri, 
148 ;  vessel   with   spout    from  Mis- 
souri,   148 ;  vessel    from    Missouri, 
149;   basins   from,   149,    150;   cup 
from   New  Madrid  (Missouri),  150  ; 
in  sepulchral  mounds   in  Missouri, 
151  ;  ditto,  in  Tennessee,  151  ;  ditto, 
in  Mississippi,  151  ;  pipe  from  Ten- 
nessee,   152  ;  ditto,  from  Missouri, 
152;    red   vase,    with    snake,    from 
Missouri,  153;  "  bear  "-shaped  vase 
from    Tennessee,    154;  pig-shaped 
vase,    155;  fish-shaped   vase,   155; 
vases  with  representations  of  men, 
156  ;  from  Belmont  (Missouri),  156  ; 
from  New  Madrid  (Missouri),  157  ; 
few  indecent  objects  among,   159; 
superiority  of,  to  Uiat  of  Swiss  Lake 
Dwellers,  159  ;  soapstone  pipe,  161 ; 
pipe  representing  a  wild   cat,  162 ; 
ditto,  a  woodpecker  (?),  162  ;   ditto, 
an   elephant,   163 ;  ditto,    a  heron, 
163  ;  pipes  from  Mound  City,  164  ; 
from    Connecticut,    Virginia,     Mis- 
souri,   Indiana,    164,     165  ;     pipe- 
stems   in   Ohio,  California,  Massa- 
chusetts,    Mississippi    valley,   Ver- 
mont,  165  ;  images   in    Tennessee, 
167  ;   near  the    Little  Miami  river 
(Ohio),  167  ;  serpentine   cups  from 
California,  168  ,  dishes  from  verte- 
brae of  Cetacea,  168  ;  jar  from  near 


552 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


the  Tallahatchee  river  (Mississippi),    ' 
168  ;   human  masks  in  stone,  168 

Pre-historic   Americans,  of   the   same 
type  as  those  of  Europe  and  Asia,  15 

phases     of     their      civilization 

analogous  to  that  of  the  Euro- 
peans, 476 ;  paucity  of  their  rel- 
ics. 476  ;  numerous  errors  resulting 
from  excavations  by  untrained  men, 
477  ;  skull  from  near  Denver  (?), 
477  ;  Ameghino's  discoveries  of  hu- 
man bones  with  the  remains  of  the 
glyptodon,  etc.,  in  the  La  Plata 
pampas,  477  ;  discoveries  near  Pon- 
timelo,  in  Buenos  Ayres,  478  ;  con- 
temporaneity of  man  and  the  glyp- 
todon not,  however,  thoroughly 
proven,  478  ;  the  skull  of  Lagoa 
Santa  (Brazil)  described,  478  [a 
similar  skull  found  at  Rock  Bluff, 
Illinois,  479]  ;  remarks  on  the  La- 
goa-Santa  skull  by  Lund  and  De 
Quatrefages,  479,  480 ;  skulls  in 
shell-heaps  on  the  California  and 
Oregon  coasts,  480  ;  skulls  in  stea- 
tite quarry  on  island  of  Santa  Cata- 
lina,  481  ;  skulls  in  Florida  shell- 
heaps,  481  ;  bones  of  the  Mound 
Builders,  481  ;  skull  associated  with 
tooth  of  a  mastodon,  from  mound 
at  New  Madrid,  Missouri,  482  ;  the 
discovery  of  fragments  of  decorated 
pottery  casts  doubts  upon  the  an- 
tiquity of  the  skull,  482  ;  skulls  of 
low  type  found  in  some  mounds, 
483  ;  comparison  of  Stimpson's 
mound  skull  and  Dunleith  (Indiana) 
mound  skull  with  the  Neanderthal 
skull,  483  ;  skulls  from  Kennicott 
mound  of  degraded  type,  483  ;  skulls 
of  analogous  type  from  Missouri, 
Dakota,  Chihuahua  (Mexico),  and 
Ohio,  484  ;  prominent  eyebrows  and 
retreating  foreheads  in  skulls  from 
Wisconsin,  Mississippi  valley,  and 
Tennessee  mounds,  485  ;  analogous 
remains  from  the  mounds  near  the 
great  lakes,  on  the  Red  River,  and 
Detroit  River,  485  ;  skulls  from  Cir- 
cular mound,  from  Western  mound, 
and  from  Fort  Wayne  mound,  485  ; 
some  skulls  of  very  small  cubical 
contents,  486;  skulls  differing 
greatly  in  shape  often  found  in  same 
mound,  487  ;  some  instances,  487  ; 
some  measurements  of  skulls  by 
Farquharson,  Carr,  and  Jones,  487, 
488  ;  two  categories  of  skulls  from 


Missouri,  488  ;  individual  variations, 
488  ;  skull  of  a  child  from  Atacama 
and  from  Alabama,  488 ;  Morton's 
theory  of  the  unity  of  physical  type 
of  the  Americans,  488  ;  the  form  of 
skull  has  but  a  very  generalized 
value,  489  ;  the  Scioto  skull  from 
Chillicothe,  and  different  theories 
relating  thereto,  489,  490 ;  some 
measurements  of  the  capacity  of  the 
skulls  of  the  Mound  Builders,  490 ; 
capacity  of  the  skulls  of  modern 
races,  491  ;  the  Mound  Builders 
seem  to  stand  low  in  the  comparison, 
491 ;  exceptional  large  skulls  from 
Tennessee  stone  graves,  491  ;  from 
an  Illinois  mound,  491  ;  the  ex- 
tremely small  "  Albany  skull,"  491 ; 
extremes  vitiate  averages,  492  ;  cra- 
nial capacity  not  proof  of  high  in- 
tellectuality, nor  vice  versa,  492  ; 
platycnemia  among  American  races, 

492  ;  this  form   of   tibia    occurs  in 
30  %  of  the  remains  from  mounds  in 
Kentucky,  Missouri,  Michigan,  and 
Indiana,  and  from  the  Florida  shell- 
heaps,  also    from    Mammoth   Cave, 

493  ;  it  also  occurs  in   bones  from 
the    Red    River   and    Fort   Wayne 
mounds,  and  the  tumuli  of  the  St. 
Clair  River,  those  near  Lake  Huron, 
on   the  one   on    Chamber's   Island 
(Wisconsin),    493  ;    from  near    the 
Detroit     River,     494  ;     causes     of 
platycnemia,  494  ;  an  indication  of 
a    low   type   of  physical   structure, 

494  ;  platycnemia  in  Europe,  494  I 
perforation  of  the  humerus  consid- 
ered  a    racial    characteristic,    495  ; 
frequently  noticed  in  bones  from  the 
mounds,  495  ;  considered  a  charac- 
teristic of  physical  inferiority,  but  it 
appears  difficult  to  establish  a  gen- 
eral law.  495  ;  but  one  skeleton  out 
of   ten    found   at  Fort   Wayne  has 
perforation  of  the  olecranon  fossa, 

495  ;    a    tendency    to    perforation 
seems  to  diminish  among  European 
races,  496  ;  Mound  Builders  said  to 
have  long  arms,  but  this  contradicted 
by  facts,    496  ;    their   variation    in 
stature,    496 ;     seven-foot    skeleton 
from  stone  grave  in  Tennessee,  and 
skeletons    exceeding     six     feet     in 
height  found   in   Utah  and    Michi- 
gan, 496  ;  but  as  a  rule  the  Mound 
Builders   were   not   above  ordinary 
size,    and   many  of   them   were   of 


INDEX. 


553 


small  stature,  497  ;  bones  of  the 
Cliff  Dwellers,  but  few  discovered, 
497  ;  skull  from  the  Chaco  cafton 
(New  Mexico),  497,  498  ;  two  skulls 
from  near  Abiquico  (New  Mexico), 
described  by  Dr.  Bessels,  498  ;  re- 
semblance of  these  to  two  skulls 
from  Tennessee,  499 ;  De  Quatre- 
fages  and  Hamy  on  the  ethnic 
identity  of  the  Mound  Builders  and 
Cliff  Dwellers,  499  ;  the  builders  of 
the  Casas-Grandes  probably  of  the 
same  race,  499  ;  Pinart's  discoveries 
in  a  tumulus  near  the  Casa-Grande 
of  Montezuma,  499 ;  skull  from 
Teul,  499  ;  type  of  mound  crania 
no  longer  general,  500  ;  analogies 
of  mound  .crania  with  those  of  the 
ancient  inhabitants  of  Anahuac ; 
skulls  from  tombs  of  Mexico, 
Otumba,  and  Tacuba,  and  Santiago- 
Tlatelolcoli,  500 ;  crania  of  the 
Mayas  as  seen  in  bas-reliefs  of  Pal- 
enque,  500 ;  artificially  deformed, 

500  ;  crania  of  the  builders   of  the 
monuments  in   Yucatan   and    Hon- 
duras   of    a    different     type,    500; 
sculptures    of    Chichen-Itza,     500; 
artificial     deformation      of     skulls 
amongst  the  Peruvians,    three  kinds 
of  deformation  practised,  according 
to  Gosse  :  the   occipital,  the   elon- 
gated symmetrical,  and   the   cunei- 
form,  501  ;    small   capacity    of   the 
crania    from  Ancon,   from    Chimu, 

501  ;    table   of    cranial     capacities, 

502  ;  average  capacity  of  Peruvian 
skulls    according    to     Morton    and 
Meigs   and    Squier,    502  ;   races  of 
Peru,  the  Chinchas,    the   Aymaras, 
the     Huancas,    502  ;      Rivero    and 
Tschudi  think    that   artificial  defor- 
mation was  confined  to  the  Chin- 
chas, doubts  about  this,  502  ;    diffi- 
culties     in      studying      race-types 
greatly  increased  by  intermixture  of 
races,    503  ;    skulls    of  a  variety  of 
shapes  found  at  the  castillo  of  the 
great   Chimu   by   Squier,   503  ;  Dr. 
Wilson    admits     only   two   distinct 
types  of  Peruvian  skulls,  503  ;  dif- 
ferences in  skull  types  do  not  neces- 
sarily  imply    different     races,    504 ; 
observations    from   mummies,    504  ; 
mummy  from  Chacota,  504  ;  hair  of 
the  Peruvians  of  fine  texture,  prob- 
ably black  in  color,  504  ;  false  hair 
was  worn  by  both  men  and  women, 


505  ;  mummied  head  of  a  man,  505. 

506  ;  ancient  men  of   Patagonia  re- 
sembled the  Eskimo,  505  ;  dolicho- 
cephalic  skulls    from     Brazil,    505  ; 
the    Botocudos    a     dolichocephalic 
race,   505  ;    they   present    analogies 
with  the    Eskimo,  505  ;  were  these 
people  contemporaries  of  the  Euro- 
pean paleolithic  people?  506  ;  syphi- 
lis   amongst    the     Mound    Builders 
and  in    Patagonia,  507  ;  the  Ma\a> 
acquainted  with  venereal  affections, 
508  ;    other    diseases  of  the  bones, 
508  ;   Farquh  arson  describes  a  lesion 
which  appears   to  have  been  cured, 
508  ;  skulls  bearing  traces  of  ancient 
inflammation,  from  Tennessee,  508  ; 
anchylosed    vertebral    column    from 
the  Aleutian    Islands,   collected   by 
Dall,    508  ;     hurts    from    traumatic- 
causes   not  rare,  508  ;  fractured  Pe- 
ruvian skulls  with  evidence  of  recov- 
eT'  5°9  I    trepanned  skull  from  Yu- 
cay  valley,    509,    510;  posthumous 
trepannings  of  fiequent  occurrence, 
509 ;     hypotheses     regarding  these, 
509 ;    trepanned    skulls  from   Sable 
and  Red    River    mounds  and  from 
mounds  in   Michigan,    510;  trepan- 
ning only  practised  on   adult  males, 
510;    trepanned    skulls    in  Europe, 
difficulty  of    comparing    these   with 
the  American  skulls,  511;  skull  de- 
formation   practised   by  the  Indians 
at  time    of   conquest,  511;  the  cus- 
tom very  ancient,  512  ;  deformation 
practised    by   all    the    Maya    races. 
512;     idols    with     flattened     heads, 
512  ;  means  employed,  512  ;  by  thi- 
Choctaws,     by    the     Mosquitos,    in 
Yucatan,     513;     health   nor   intelli- 
gence   apparently    injured     by   this 
custom,     513  ;      deformation     prac- 
tised in  Europe    and   Asia,  513  ;  in 
Oceanica,    514  ;    in   France,    defor- 
mation   toulousaine,    515  ;  was   de- 
formation    always    voluntary  ?  515. 
CONCLUSIONS.  —  The     pre-historic 
American  differs  but  little  from  the 
Indians,    and    there   is  no  essential 
physical  difference  between  him  and 
the    ancient   European,  516 ;   varie- 
ties   and   migrations  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, 5 

Pre-historic  man,  existence  of  man  in 

the  Quaternary  period.  15 
contemporary  of  extinct  animals, 

15 


554 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


Pre-historic  man  his  weapons,  16 
his  existence  during  glacial  times, 

19 

bones  of,  associated  with  those  of 

extinct  animals,  23 

his  antiquity  in  America,  accord- 
ing to  Lund,  26 

his  remains  in  the  Sumidouro 

cave  connected  with  the  reindeer 
period  in  Europe  and  not  with  the 
mammoth,  26 

his  remains  associated  with  those 

of  the  extinct  mammalia  in  Buenos 
Ayres,  28,  29 

his  skull  found  on  the  banks  of 

the  Rio  Negro  (Patagonia),  it  is  arti- 
ficially deformed  and  shows  traces 
of  periostitis,  33 

skeletons  from  the  ancient  ceme- 


teries of  Patagonia,  33 

in  Louisiana,  34,  35 

in  Missouri,  36  ;  in  Iowa,  37  ;  in 

Nebraska,  37  ;  in  the  Sierra  Nevada 
region,  37 

in  California,  37,  39,  45 

in  Arizona,  37 

in  Wyoming,  39 

his  remains  found  in  the  shell- 
heaps,  51,  52,  53 

a  cannibal  in  Brazil,  53 

a  cannibal  in  Florida,  58,  59  ;  in 

New  England,  59 

his  remains  in  caves  in  Cali- 
fornia, Mexico,  Peru,  Virginia, 
Tennessee,  Kentucky,  69 

on  the  Gasconade  River  (Mis- 
souri), 70,  ;  in  Shelter  Cave  (Ohio), 
71  ;  in  Ash  Cave  (Ohio),  72 

in  Summit  county  (Ohio),  72  ;  in 

Pennsylvania,  73 

probably       inhabited      wigwams 

when  caves  were  not  available,  76 

skeletons  in  the  ruins   of  Aztalan 

(Wisconsin),  93 

skeletons  in  mounds  at  Sandy- 
Woods  settlement  (Missouri),  95 

a  skull  enclosed  in  pottery,   104, 

105 

Prescott,  cannibalism  in  Mexico,  61 

Pueblos,  described,  200  ;  Taos,  201  ; 
Acoma,  201  ;  estufas,  204  ;  ob- 
servation towers,  214 

in   Montezuma   Valley,  217  ;  on 

the  Rio  de  Chelly,  218 

on  the    La    Plata,    222 ;    Casa- 

Grande  of  the  Rio  Gila,  223  ;  Casas- 
Grandes  in  Chihuahua,  225 
—  Pueblo  Bonito   (Pintado),    228  ; 


Pueblo  Bonito,  229  ;  P.  Hungo 
Pavie,  232  ;  P.  Una  Vida,  233  ;  P. 
Weje-Gi,  233  ;  P.  Penasca-Blanca, 
233  ;  P.  Arroyo,  233  ;  P.  Alto,  234 
—  P.  Chettro-Kettle,  234  ;  on  Las 
Animas  river,  236  ;  on  the  Pecos 
river,  236 

government  of,  240 

and  cliff-dwellings,  similarity  of, 

255 
grouping  of  modern,  257 

Quacalaco,  towns  in  the  province  of, 

discovered  by  Cortes,  7 
Quemada,  ruins  of,  361 
Quetzacoatl,  legend  of,  274 
Quinames,  legend  concerning  the,  264 
Quipos,  457 

Quirigua  (Guatemala),  ruins  at,  373 
Quito,  conical  mound,  400  feet  high, 

near,  81 

Races  and  tribes  of  America  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  3,  7,  13 

REFERENCES. 

ABBOTT  (Dr.),  "Primitive  Industry," 
19;  "  Palaeolithic  Implements  in  the 
Drift  in  the  Valley  of  the  Delaware, 
near  Trenton,  New  Jersey,"  19,  20, 
477 

ACOSTA  (Jos.  de),  "  Hist,  natural  y 
moral  de  las  Yndias,"  279,  303,  310, 
358,  380,  438 

"  Compendio  hist,  del  descu- 

brimiento  y  colonisacion  de  la 
Nueva  Granada,"  459,  460 

ADAIR,  "  Hist,  of  the  American  Indi- 
ans," 190,  513 

ABLER,  "  Stone  Cist  near  Highland, 
Madison  county  (Illinois),  "497 

AGASSIZ,  "A  Journey  in  Brazil,"  18, 
466,  509 

"Album  Mexicano,"  225 

ALEGRE,  "  Hist,  de  la  Compania  de 
Jesus  en  Nueva  Espafta,"  280 

ALLEN,  "  La  Tres  Ancienne  Amer- 
ique,"  389 

ALZATE  Y  RAMIREZ,  "  Descripcion 
delas  Antiguedades  de  Xochicalco," 

352,  353 
American  Antiquarian,   84,   85,    119, 

130,  165,  485,  496 
AMEGHINO,  "  Inscripciones  ante  col- 

ombianas  encontradas  en  la  Repub- 

lica  Argentina,"  456 
"  En  Nueva  Granada  las  inscrip- 


INDEX. 


555 


ciones  geroglificas  se  encuentran  a 

cado  paso,"  465 
AMEGHINO,     "  La    Antiguedad     del 

Hombre  en  el  Plata,"  3,  5,  6,  22, 

28,  29,  30,  54,  160,  455,  456,  461, 

465,  471,  472,  505,  506 
ANDREWS   (Dr.),    "Report,  Peabody 

Museum,"  86,  87,  118,  178 

"  Evidences  of  the  Antiquity  of 

Man  in  the  United  States,"  72 

in  American  Naturalist,  73 

"  Explor.  of  Mounds  in  S.  E. 

Ohio,"  165 

"  The  Native  Americans,"  107 

ANGRAND,  "  Lettre  sur  les  Antiquites 
de  Tiaguanaco,"  389,  390,  400,  405, 
419 

"  Ann.  del  Museo  Nacional,"  279 

ANOUTCHINE,  "  Rev.  d'  Anthr./  504 

"Anthrop.  Soc.  of  Washington,  Pro- 
ceedings," 301 

"Archiv.  Americana,"  185 

ARIAS,  "  Antiguedades  Zapotecas," 
368 

ARISTOTLE,  "Treatise  on  Govern- 
ment," 60 

ARLEGUY,  "  Chron.  de  la  Prov.  de  S. 
Francisco  de  Zacatecas,"  225 

ARRIAGA  (Father),  "  Extirpacion  de  la 
Idolatria  del  Peru,"  434 

AVENDANO,  "Semi. ,"527 

BACHELET,  "  Dictionaire  des  Sciences 
morales  et  politique,"  60 

BALDWIN,  "  Ancient  America,"  340. 

BANCROFT,  "  Native  Races,"  5,  n,  12, 
37.39,50,51,64,82,85,93, 101, 106, 
137,  142,  146,  159,  160,  170,  180, 
181,  223,  224,  227,  243,  261,  262, 
264,  266,  272,  273,  274,  276,  278, 
283,  284,  285,  287,  294,  299,  306, 
313,  318,  319,  322,  330,  333,  335, 

337,  350,  363.  376,  378,  5",  528 
BANDELIER  (A.  F.),   "  Report  on  the 

Ruins  of  the  Pueblo  of  Pecos,  127, 

204,  236,  238,  239,  241,  248. 
"On  the  Special  Organization  and 

Mode  of  Government  of  the  Ancient 

Mexicans,"  306 
"  Arch.  Hist,  of  America,"  351 

"Report,     Peabody    Museum," 

285,  309,  310,  313,  316 

"  Rep.,  Am.  Assoc.,"  497 

BARBER,  "  Cong,  des  Americanistes," 

200 

BARIL,  "  La  Mexique,"  82 
BARRANDT,  "Smith's  Rep.,"  186 
BARTLETT,  "  Personal   Narrative    of 


Explorations  in  Texas,  New  Mex- 
ico,   California,    Sonora,    and   Chi- 
huahua," 78,  223,  225,  247 
BASTIAN,     "  Zeitschrift    der    Gesell- 

schaftftir  Erdkunde,"46s 
BECKER,  "On  the  Migrations  of  the 

Nahuas,"  271 
BERGERON,  "  Hist,  de  la  Navigation," 

9 

BERTHOUD,   "  Phil.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci." 
BERTILLON  (J.)    Nature,  446 
BERTRAND  and  MACKINLEY,  "Coni- 
cal mounds  in  Georgia,"  106 

"  Travels   in   North    America," 

1 06 

BERTRAND,  "  Bull  Soc.  Anth.,"  494 
BESSELS  (Dr.),    "  The   Human    Re- 
mains   found    among   the    Ancient 
Ruins  of  S.  W.  Colorado  and  New 
Mexico,"  498 

"Congres  des  Americanistes, "499 

BIRCH,    "Ancient  Pottery,"  134,  443 
"  Bird-shaped    mounds     in     Putnam 

county,  Georgia,"  123 
BLAKE    (Carter),     "Journal    of    the 

Anth.  Soc.  of  London,"  494 
BLAKE  (J.),  "  Notes  on  a  Collection 
from  the  Ancient  Cemetery  of  the 
Bay  of  Chacota,  430,   504,  505 
BOLLAERT  (W.),   "  Antiquarian,  Eth- 
nological,  and  other  Researches  in 
New  Granada,  Ecuador,  Peru,  and 
Chili,"  388,  421,  423,430,  433,435. 

443,  447,  453,  455,  459 

"  Memoirs  of  the  Anthropo- 
logical Society  of  London,"  379 

BORDIER,  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  468, 
506,  516 

BOTURINI,  "  Idea  de  una  nueva  hist, 
general  de  la  America  Septentrio- 
nal," 285 

BOYLE,  "A  Ride  Across  the  Conti- 
nent," 83,  97 

BREBEUF  (Father  Jean  de),  "Voyage 
dans  la  nouvelle  France  occidental," 
62 

BRECKENRIDGK,  "Views  of  Louisi- 
ana," 80.  117 

BRINTON,  "  Notes  on  the  Floridian 
Peninsula,"  48 

"  The     Myths    of    the     New 

World."  280 

BROCA,  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  3.  494 
'  Rev.  d'Anth.,"  510,  511 


BRUHL  (Dr.),  Cincinnati  lancet  and 
Clinic.  508 

BRY,  "  Bresil  Voy.  de  J.  Stadius  He- 
sous,"  61 


556 


PRE-H1STOR1C  AMERICA. 


BRY,  In  "  Collectiones  perigrinatio- 
num  in  Indiam  Occidentalem,"  61 

"Voyage  de  Joannes  Lerus  de 

Burgundus,"  61 

"Bulletin  Buffalo  Soc.  Nat.  Hist., 
1877,"  177 

"Bull.  Soc.   Anth.,"  432,    467,  470, 

475,  477- 
BURGOA,  "  Geografica  descripcion  de 

la   parte    septentrionnale  del    Polo 

Artico   de   la   America,"  300,   363, 

364,  366 
"Burial  Mounds  in  Ohio,"^4/«.  Ant., 

in 

BuRKART(J.),  "Aufenthal  und  Reisen 

in  Mexico,"  361 
BURMEISTER,  "  Congres  d'Anthropolo- 

gie  et  d'Arche'ologie  pre'historiques," 

474 
BURTON  (R.),  "  Highlands  of  Brazil," 

466 
BUSK,  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  494 

CARR  (Lucien),  "  Recent  Explora- 
tions of  Mounds  near  Davenport, 
Iowa,"  488,  490,  491 

"  Observations  on  the  Crania 

from  the  Stone  Graves  of  Tennes- 
see," 188,  508 

"  Rep.,  Am.  Assoc.,"  488. 

"  Mounds  of  the  Mississippi 

Valley,"  131,  132 

"Carta,  segunda  de  relacion  ap.  Lo- 
renzana,"  7 

CASTANEDA,  "  Voy.  de  Cibola,"  208. 

CASTANO  DE  LA  COSA  (G.),  "  Memo- 
ria  del  Descubrimiento  que — hizo 
en  el  Nuevo  Mexico,"  237 

CATLIN,  "  Illustrations  of  the  Man- 
ners,  Customs  ana  Conditions  of  the 
North  American  Indians,"  98,  190, 

5" 
CHANTRE,  "  Revue  d'Anthrop.,  1881," 

160 
CHARNAY,  "Cites  et  Ruines  Amer- 

icaines,"  306,  321,    334,  335,    337, 

338,  341,  349.  500 
"  Bull.  Soc.   Geogr.,"  322,  324, 

356,  536 

"Revue   d'Ethnographie,"    347, 

348 

CHILDE  (E.  Lee),  Correspondent,  239 
"  Chronica  de  la  Orden  de  N.  P.  S. 

Aug.,"  302 

CHURCHILL,  "  Coll.  of  Voyages,"  285 
CLAVIGERO,   "Hist.  Antigua  de  Me- 

jico,"  164 
"  Storia  Antica  del  Messico,"  225, 


261,  276,  282,  285,  287,  288,  300, 
301,  302,  307,  308,  349,  350,  363. 
378,  507 

CLAVIGERO,  "Storia  del  la  California," 
78 

COCKBURN,  '  'A  Journey  Overland  from 
the  Gulf  of  Honduras  to  the  Great 
South  Sea,"  138 

COGOLLUDO,  "  Hist  de  Yucatan,"  269, 
270,  349,  526 

CONANT,  "  Footprints  of  Vanished 
Races,"  69,  87,  116,  117,  120,  127, 
r3°,  J35.  !39>  r46,  181,  228,  484, 
488,  515,  517 

Congress  Arch,  de  Kazan,  60 

Cong,  des  Am.,  485 

Contributions  to  North  American  Eth- 
nology, 130,  522 

COOK,  "  Voyage  to  the  Pacific  Ocean," 

134 
CORDELIER  (P.Thevet),  "Les  singular- 

ite's  de  la  France  Antarctique  autre- 

ment  nomme'e  Amerique,"  521 
CORTEREAL,   "  Voy.  aux  Indes  Occi- 

dentales,"  166 
CORTES,  "  Cartasy  Relaciones  al  Em- 

perador  Carlos  V.,"  269,   270,    288, 

308,  309.  358 
Cox,  a  remarkable  ancient  stone  fort 

in  Clarke  county  (Ohio),  90 
CREVAUX,  "Congr.  Preh.  de  Paris, "63 
GUSHING  (Frank),  Century  Magazine, 

239 

DARWIN,  "  Voyage  of  the  Beagle,  "430 

D'ANGHIERA  (Peter  Martyr),  "  DC 
Rebus  Oceanicis  et  Orbe  Novo," 
62,  164,  267,  268,  271,  361,  379 

DALL  (W.  H.),  remains  of  later  pre- 
historic man  from  the  caves  of  llie 
Catherina  Archipelago,  Alaska  Ter- 
ritory, 66,  508 

DE  BOURBOURG  (Brasseur),  "  Hist, 
des  Nations  Civilizees  du  Mexique 
et  de  1' Amerique  Centrale,"  82,  93, 
261,  263,  269,  283,  284,  286,  288, 
300,  302,  335,  336,  366,  381,  508, 
530 

"  Recherches  sur  les  rflines  de 

Palenque  avec  les  dessins  de  Wai- 
deck,"  II,  318,  330 

"  Voy.  sur  1'Isthme  de  Tehuan- 

tepec,"  251 

DEBRET,  "  Voy.  pitt.  et  hist,  au  Bre'sil 
depuis  1816  jusqu'en  1831,"  469 

DE  CASTELNAU  (F.),  "  Exp.  dans  les 
parties  centrales  de  1'Amerique  du 
Sud,"466 


IXDRX. 


557 


DE  CHARENCY,  "  Essai  de  dechiffre- 

ment   d'une    inscription     palenque- 

enne,"  379 
"  Recherches     sur     le     Codex 

Troano,"  379 
D'ElCHTAL,  "  Etudes  sur  les  origines 

Bouddhiques,"  527 
DE  ESPARZA,  "  Informe  presentado  al 

Gobierno,"  361 
DE  FOSSEY  (Math.),  "  Le   Mexique," 

385 

DE  HASS  (W.),  "Arch,  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley,"  129,  137 

Am.  Ass.  Trans. 

DE  LEON  (Cie9a),  "  Primera  parte  de 
la  chronica  del  Peru,"  451 

DE  LONGPERIER,  "Notice  des  Monu- 
ments exposee  dans  la  Salle  des 
Antiquites  Americaines,"  445 

DEL  Rio  (A),  "Descripcion  del  ter- 
reno  y  poblacion  antigua,"  318,  324 

DE  MARTIUS,  "Beitrage  zur  Ethno- 
graphic und  Sprachenkunde  Amer- 
ikas  zumal  Brasiliens,"  466 

DEMMIN,  "Guide  1'amateur  de  fai- 
ences ou  de  porcelaines,"  443 

DE  NEUWIED  (Prince  Max),  "  Reise 
nach  Bresilien,"  466 

DENIS  (F.),  "  Le  Bresil,  Univers  Pit- 
toresque,"  466,  469 

DE  QUATREFAGES  and  HAMY, 
"  Crania  Ethnica,"  480,  489,  499, 
500,  501 

DE  QUATREFAGES,  Cong.  Anth.  de 
Moscou,  469 

DE  RIVERO  ET  TSCHUDI  (E.),  "  An- 
tiguedades  Peruanas,"  388,  400,  430, 
502 

"  Die    Kechua    Sprache,"    388, 

390 
DE  ROSNY  (L.),  "  Essai  de  dechiffre-  ; 

ment    de    I'e'criture    hieratique    de 

1'Amerique  Centrale,"  379 
DE  SARTIGES   (Comte),  in  Rev.   des 

Deux  Mondes}  411,  419 
Description  of  a  deformed  fragmentary 

skull  in  an  ancient  quarry  cave  at 

Jerusalem,  514 
DE  ST.  HILAIRE  (A.)  "  Voyage  dans 

les  provinces  de  Rio  de  Janeiro  et  de 

Minas  Geraes,"  466 
DESJARDINS  (E.),  "  Le  Perou  avant  la 

Conquete  Espagnole,"  388.  392, 400,  i 

404,  419,  424,  435,  436,  438,  443,   ! 

460,   527 
DE  SOUZA  (Pompeu),  "  Compendio  de 

Geographia    geral    e     especial     do  j 

Brazil,"  466 


DE  VARNHAGEN  (F.),  "  Hist,  geral 
do  Brasil,"  466,  467 

DE     VlLLAGUTIERRE     Y     SOTOMAYOR 

(Juan),  "  Hist,  de  la  Conquista  de 
la  Province  de  el  Itza,"  379 
DIAZ  (Bernal),    "  Hist.  Verdadera  dc 
la  Conquista  de  la  Nueva  Espana," 
309,  358.  359 

"  Relatione  fatta  per  un  gentil'- 

huomo  del  Signor  F.    Cortese."  358 

DOMINGUEZ  and  ESCALANTE,  "  Diario 

y  Derrotero  Santa  Fe  a  Monterey," 

1776,  256 
D'ORBIGNY,  "  L'Homme  Ame'ricain," 

388,  390,  467 
DUPAIX  (Captain),  "  Relation  des  trois 

expeditions  ordonneesen  i8o5-'6-'7, 

pour  la  recherche  des  antiquites  du 

pays  notamment  de  celles  de  Mitla 

et  de  Palenque,"  318 
Du    PRATZ,    "  Hist,    of    Louisiana," 

526 
DURAN  (Father),  "  Hist.   Ant.    de  la 

Nueva  Espana,"  351 
"  Hist,  de  las  Indias  de  la  Nueva 

Espana,"  291,  297,  308,  309,  310 

"  El  Conquistador  Anonimo,"  307 
EMORY,  "  Notes  of  a  Military  Recon- 
noissance  from  Fort  Leavenworth  in 
Kansas  to  San  Diego  in  California," 

237 

Ensayo  de  un  estudio  comparative 
entre  la  Pyramide  Egyptias  y  Mexi- 
canas,"  14 

ESCUDERO,  "  Noticias  del  Estado  de 
Chihuahua,"  225 

ESPINOSA  (Cabajal),  "  Hist,  de  Mex- 
ico," 361 

EVERS  (E),  "  Ancient  Pottery  of  Mis- 
souri," 135 

"Contributions   to  the  Archae- 
ology of  Missouri,"  140 

FARQUHARSON  (Dr.),  "Observations 
on  the  Crania  from  some  Stone 
Graves  in  Tennessee,"  487 

"  Proc.  Am.  Assoc.,"  507,  508 

"Report,  Peabody  Museum, "487 

FEGUEUX,  "  Les  Ruines  de  la  Quern- 
ado,"  361 

FISCHER  (H.),  "Sur  1'origine  des 
pierres  dites  d'Amazone  et  sur  ce 
peuple  fabuleux,"  473 

FITZROY.  "Voyage  of  the  Adventure 
and  the  Beagle,"  63 

FLINT  (Dr.),  "  Report,  Peabody  Muse- 


558 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


FONTAINE,    ' '  How    the   World    was 

Peopled,"  284 
FORCE,  "  A  quelle  Race  appartenaient 

les  Mound  Builders,"  92,  103,  195 

Cong,  des  Am. ,  239 

FOSTER,  "  Description  of  Samples  of 

Ancient  Cloth  from  the  mounds  of 

Ohio,"  177 
"  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  U.  S. 

of  America,"  35,  36,  50,  104,  126, 

284,  480,  481 
— —  "  Mississippi  Valley,"  81 

"  Report,  Am.  Assoc.,"  482 

FOSTER    and  WHITNEY,    "  Rep.   on 

the  Geol.  of  the  Lake  Superior  Re- 

gion,"  178 
FRIEDERICKSTAHL  (Baron  von),  "  Les 

Monuments  du  Yucatan,"  335 
"  Nouv.  Annales  des   Voyages," 

341 

FRO3BEL,  "Seven  Years'  Travel  in 
Central  America,"  83 

GALINDO,   "Am.  Ant.    Soc.  Trans.," 

330,  332 

GALLATIN,  "  Am.  Ant.  Soc.  Trans.," 
292 

"  Nouv.  Ann.  des  Voyages,"  70 

"  Trans.  Am.  Ethn.  Soc.,"  6 

GARCILASSO  L>E  LA  VEGA,  "  Los  Com- 
entarios  reales  que  tratan  del  origen 
de  los  Incas,  reyes  que  fueron  del 
Peru,"  154,  164,  388,  395,  416,  437, 

439 

"  Hist,    de   la    Conquete   de  la 

Floride,  ou  Relation  de  ce  qui  s'est 
passe  au  Voyage  de  Ferdinand  de 
Soto  pour  la  Conquete  de  ce  Pays," 
189 

"  Hist,      des     Incas,    rois     de 

Perou,"  388,  412,  515 

"  History  of  Florida,"  80 

GAUDRY,    "  Les    Enchainements    du 

Monde  Animal,"  16 
GERVAIS,  in  Journal  de  Zoologie,  28 
GILLMAN(H.),  "Add.  Facts  Concern- 
ing Artificial  Perforation  of  the  Cra- 
nium in  Ancient    Mounds  in  Mich- 
igan," 509 

"  Rep.,  Am.  Assoc.,"  492,  493 

"  Report,    Peabody     Museum," 

136 
"  The  Ancient  Men  of  the  Great 

Lakes,"  485 
"  Ancient  Works  of  Isle  Royal," 

179 

"  Explorations  in  the  vicinity  of 

Aledo,  Florida,"  III 


GOGUET,  "  Memoire  touchant  1'  eta- 
blisement  d'  une  mission  chretienne 
dans  le  troisieme  monde,  autrement 
appele  la  Terre  Australe,"  134 

GOMARA,  "  Hist,  de  Mexico,  "  270, 
276,  277,  279,  301,  305,  312,  358, 
378,  507 

"  Hist.  gen.  de   las  Indias,"  298 

GOSSE,  "Essai  sur  les  deformations 
artificielles  du  crane,"  501,  503,  504 

514 

GREENHALGH,  193 

GRIJALVA  (Juan  de),  "Cronica  de  la 
Orden  de  N.  P.  S.  Augustin,"  270 

discovery  of  the  cross  in  Yuca- 
tan temples,  1 76 

GUEVARA,  "  Hist,  del  Paraguay,  en 
col.  Hist.  Argentina,"  527 

GtJTTLER,  "  Naturforschung  und 
Bibel." 

HABEL  (Dr.),  "Investigations  in 
Central  and  South  America,"  84, 

371 
"  Smithsonian  Contributions,"  81, 

146,  152 

HAKLUYT,  "  Voyages,"  239 
HALDEMAN,    "A    Rock    Retreat    in 

Pennsylvania,"  73 

letter  of,  22 

HAMY,  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  333,  495 
HARDY,  "  Indian  Monachism,"  342 

"  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  59 

HARRISON  (Gen.),  "  Trans.  Hist.  Soc. 

of  Ohio,"  185 
HARTT,    "Archives   of   the  National 

Museum  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,"  467 
"  Geology   and  Physical  Geogra- 
phy of  Brazil,"  466 

"Rep.,  Peabody  Mus.,"  56,  472 

HAYNES,    (H.    W.),    "The  Argillite 

Implements  found   in    the   Gravels 

of  Delaware  River,"  21 
HELLER,  "  Reisen  in  Mexiko,"  351 
HELLWALD  (F.  von),  "A  quelle  race 

appartenaient  des  Mound  Builders," 

197 

Congres  des  Americanistes,   180 

"  The    American    Migrations," 

272,  284 
HENDERSON  (G.),    "  An  Account  of 

the    British    Settlement     of    Hon- 
duras," 83 
HENNEPIN  (P.),    "Description   de  la 

Louisiane,"  62 
HENSHAW  (H.  W.),  2d  Annual   Rep. 

Bureau      of      Ethnology,     Wash., 

1884,  162 


INDEX. 


559 


HERRERA,  "  Hist.  Gen.  de  los 
Hechos  de  los  Castillanos  en  las 
Islas  y  Tierra  Firme  del  Mar 
Oceano,"  176,  266,  268,  269,  270, 
302,  303,  309,  363,  364,  380,  438, 
507 

HEYWOOD,  "  Expl.  of  the  Aboriginal 
Remains  in  Tennessee,"  176 

"Natural  and  Aboriginal  His- 
tory of  Tennessee,"  159 

HIPPOCRATES,  "  De  Aeris,  Aquis,  et 
Locis,"  513 

HOFFMAN  (Dr.),  "  Ethn.  Obs.  on  In- 
dians Inhabiting  Nevada,  California, 
and  Arizona,"  227,  244,  254 
—  "  Report  on  the  Chaco Cranium," 
497 

HOLMES,  "Report  on  the  Ancient 
Ruins  of  S.  W.  Colorado,"  202,  208, 
210,  215,  222,  245,  247,  248 

HUBBARD,  "  Am.  Ant. ,"  487 

HUMBOLDT,  "  Essai    pol.  sur  le  roy. 
de  la  Nouvelle  Espagne,"  350 
"  Personal  Travels  to  the  Equi- 
noctial Regions  of  America,"  114 

".Researches  concerning  the  In- 
stitutions and  Monuments  of  the 
Ancient  Inhabitants  of  America," 
284 

"  Vues  des   Cordilleres  et  Mon. 

des    Peuples    indigenes  de  1'  Amer- 
ique,"  350,  352,  388,  459 

"  Views  of   the  Cordilleras,"  264 

"Voyage  aux    regions    equinoc- 

tiales,"  etc.,  459 

HUTCHINSON,  "Two  Years  in  Peru," 
388,  393 

HUXLEY,  "  Man's  Place  in  Nature," 
35 

"  Isographia  fisica  y   politica   de  los 

Estados  Unidos  de  Colombia,"  459 
IXTLILXOCHITL  "  Hist.  Chichimeca," 

261,  272,  279,  281,  282,  283,  285, 

290,  310 
"  Relaciones,"     264,    272,    276, 

277,  291,  303,  305,  309,  315 

JACKSON,  "Ruins  of  S.  W.  Colo- 
rado," 203,  206,  217,  219,  229,  235 

"Geol.    Rep.  to  U.   S.    Gov't," 

178 

JAFFRAY,  in  Nature,  457 

"  La  Tour  du  Monde,"  459 

"Voyage   a   la     Nouvelle    Gre- 
nade," 459,  461 

JAKAVILLO  (Juan),  "  App.  VI.. 
'lYrnnux  Compans,"  237 


JONES,  "Antiquities  of  the  Southern 
Indians  and  Georgia  Tribes,"  48, 
190,  254 

"  Explorations  of  the  Aboriginal 

Remains  of  Tennessee,"  91,  114, 
"5,485,  49°.  507,  5", 

"Smiths.  Contrib. ,"  159,  167, 

168,  196,  490 

JOMARD,  "  Bull.  Soc.  Geog.  de 
Paris,"  320 

JUARROS  (Domingo),  "  A  Statistical 
and  Commercial  History  of  Guate- 
mala," 330 

"  Hist,  of  the  Kingdom  of 

Guatemala,"  266 

KINGSBOROUGH  "Ant.  of  Mexico," 
262,  264,  272,  276,  281,  282,  285, 
287,  288,  291,  298,  303,  307,  313, 
3i8,  350 

KNAPP,  "Ancient  Mining  on  Lake  Su- 
perior," 179 

KOSTER,  "Voyage  dans  la  partie  sep- 
tentrionale  du  Bresil  depuis  1809 
jusqu'en  1815." 

LACERDA  and  PEIXOTTO,  "  Archives 
do  Museo  Nacional,"  466,  468 

"  Contribu9oes  ao  estudo  an- 

thropologico  das  Ra9as  indigenas  do 
Brazil,"  23,  466 

LANDA  (Bishop  of  Merida),  "  Rela- 
cion  de  las  Cosas  de  Yucatan,"  266, 
341,  349,  378,  513,  526,  527 

LAPHAM,  "  The  Antiquities  of  Wis- 
consin," 89,  91,  114,  126,  129 

Letter  to  Dr.  Foster,  517 

"  Smithsonian  Contrib.,"  87 

LARKiN(Dr.),"Rep.,  Peabody  Mus.," 
118 

LAS  CASAS,    "  Brevissima  Relacion," 

309 
"  Hist.  Apol.  de  las  IndiasOcci- 

dentales,"  298,  358,  378,  427 
LECONTE,    "  Cremation  Amongst  the 

North  American  Indians,"  120 
LEIDY    (J.),    "Contributions   to   the 

Extinct    Vertebrate    Fauna   of    the 

Western  Territories,"  534 
—  "  The       Extinct       Mammalian 

Fauna   of    Dakota  and    Nebraska, 

534 

LE  PLONGEON  (Dr.).  Letter  of,  344 
LF.WIS  and  CLARK,   "  Travels  to  the 

Source  of  the  Missouri  River,"  85 
"  Littorina  Peruviana,"  432 
LOPE/.  (V.  F.),  "  Les  Races  Aryennes 

du  I'erou,"  388 


560 


PRE-HJSTO.RIC  AMERICA. 


LOWENSTERN,  "  Mexico,"  353 
LUBBOCK  "  L'Homme  Preh.,"  35 

"  Prehistoric  Times,"  180 

LYELL,  "  Antiquity  of  Man,"  34,  35 

"  Second   Visit   to   America    in 

1846,"  34,  47 

LYON,  "  Journal  of  a  Tour  in  the  Re- 
public of  Mexico,"  361 
"  Smiths.  Contrib.,"  in 

MAGALHAES  (Dr.  Couto  de)  "  O  Sel- 
vagem,"  9 

MAGUIRE,  "  Proc.  Boston  Soc.  Nat. 
Hist.,"  74 

MALER(F.),  Nature,  369 

MARCOY  (St.  Cricq)  "  Voyage  a  Tra- 
vers  1'Amerique  du  sud  de  1'Ocean 
Pacifique  a  1'Ocean  Atlantique," 
466 

MARKHAM,  "  Cuzco  and  Lima,"  393, 
416 

"  Narratives  of  the  Rites  and 

Laws  of  the  Incas,"  437 

"  The  Tribes  of  the  Empire  of 

the  Incas,"  390 

MARQUETTE,  "  Voyages  et  Decou- 
vertes  du  P.  Marquette  dans  1'Am- 
erique Septentrionale,"  254 

MAUREL,  "Bull.  Soc.  Anthr.,"  27 

MAYER,  "  Mexico  as  It  Was,"  350 

McKEE  (Col.),  "  Habits  of  California 
Indians,"  76 

"  Memoires  de  la  Soc.  d'Hist.  et  de 
Geog.  du  Bresil,"  479 

MENDIETA  (G.  de),  "Hist.  Eccl.  In- 
diana," 310,  313,  314,  316 

MEYER,  "  Reise  um  die  Erde  ;  Beit- 
rage  zur  ZoSlogie,"  502 

MILES,  "  Trans.  Ethn.  Soc.  of  Lon- 
don," 435 

Milwaukee  Advertiser,  1837,  92 

M5LHAUSEN  (B.),  "  Tagebuch  eine 
reise  vom  Mississippi  nach  dem 
Kusten  der  Sud  See,"  226,  249 

MOLINA,  "  Vocabulerio  in  lengua  Cas- 
tillana  y  Mexicana,"  314 

"  Vocabularis  en  lengua  Castel- 

lana  y  Mexicana,"  362 

' '  Relacion  de  las  Fabulas  y 

Ritos  de  los  Ingas,"  530 

MONTESINOS,  "  Memorias  Antiguas 
historiales  del  Peru,"  388 

Mem.  hist,    sur  1'ancien  Perou," 

456 
MORENO,  "  Les  Paraderos  preh.  do  la 

Patagonie,"  27,  32,  33,  505 
MORGAN   (L.    H.),    "  League  of   the 

Iroquois,"  193 


MORGAN  (L.  H.),  "On  the  Ruins  of 
a  Stone  Pueblo  on  the  Animas 
River  in  New  Mexico,"  236 

"  Rep.,  Peabody  Mus.,"  204 

52i 

MORTON,  "  Crania  Americana  ;  or,  A 
Comparative  View  of  the  Skulls  of 
Various  Aboriginal  Nations  of 
North  and  South  America,"  488, 
.490,  500,  502,  503,  505 

MOURE,  (Dr.)  "  Les  Indiens  de  la 
Province  de  Matto  Grosso,"  53 

MOLLER  (F.  W.v.),  "  Americanischen 
Urreligionen,"  274 

"  Reisen  in  den  Vereinigten 

Staten,  Canada,  and  Mexico,"  289, 
368 

NADAILLAC,  "  Les  Premiers  Hommes 

et  les  Temps  Prehistoriques,"  424, 

483,  5io 
NAGERA  (Castaneda  de),   "  Relation 

du  Voy.  de  Cibola,"  237,  243 
NEBEL,   ' '  Viaje  pittoresco  y   arqueo- 

logico  sobre  la  rep.  Mejicana,"  352, 

353,  361 
NORMAN,     "Rambles    in    Yucatan," 

335,  340,  341 

NOTT  and  GLIDDON'S  "  Types  of  Man- 
kind," 3,  5,  23,  34,  35,  503 

OROZCO  Y  BERRA,    "  Geographia  de 

las  lenguas  y  Carta  Ethnografica  de 

Mexico,"  262,  311 
OVIEDO,     "  Natural    Historia  de  las 

Indias,"  153 
OVIEDO  Y  VALDES,   "  Hist.  Gen.  7 

Natural  de  las  Indias,"  268,  271, 

359-  413,  501 

PAZ-SOLDAN  (Mateo),  "  Geog.  del 
Peru,"  388,  391,  423 

PEET  (Rev.  S.  D.),  "The  Military 
Architecture,"  92 

American  Antiquarian,  92,  161 

PERKINS  (G.  H.),  "Ancient  Burial- 
Ground  in  Swanton,  Vermont," 
114,  165,  174 

'  *  General  Remarks  upon  the 

Arch,  of  Vermont,"  136,  250 

PICKETT  (A.  J.),  "  History  of  Ala- 
bama," 189 

PIDGEON,  "Ant.  Researches,"  85 

PIEDRAHITA,  "  Hist.  Gen.  de  la  Con- 
quista  del  Nuevo  Reyno  de  Gra- 
nada," 459 

PIMENTEL  (Francesco),  "  Lenguas In- 
digenas  de  Mexico,"  13 


INDEX. 


56i 


POTTER  (W.  P.),  "Arch.  Remains  in 
S.  E.  Missouri,"  85,  95,  136,  151, 
i?i 

PRESCOTT  (W.  H.),  "Hist,  of  the 
Conquest  of  Peru,"6i,  388,  412,458 

"  Hist,    of     the    Conquest    of 

Mexico,"  61.  262,  358 

PRITCHARD,     "  Natural    History    of 

Man,"  6,  284 
"  Proc.,  Boston  Soc.  of  Nat.  Hist.," 

533 
PRUNIERES (Dr.),  "Bull.  Soc.  Anth.," 

494 

PURCHAS,  "  His  Pilgrimes,"  270. 
PUTNAM  (F.  W.)   "Arch.    Expl.    in 

Tenn.,"  507 
"  Bull,  of  the  Essex  Inst.,"  200, 

244 
"  Report,  Peabody  Museum,"  74, 

94,    103,  115,   145,    176,  244,   487, 

497,  508 

RAMUSIO,  "  Navigationi   et   Viaggi," 

358 
RATH   (C.),    "  Revista    do    Institute 

historico,  geographico,  ethnographi- 

co  do  Brazil,"  464 
RAU,  "Arch.  Coll.  U.  S.  Nat.  Mus.," 

171 

"  Indian  Pottery,"  134,  243 

"  North    American    Stone    Im- 
plements"  ("  Smith.  Cont."),  36 
"The    Palenque    Tablet,"   324, 

379 
"  Smith.    Contributions,"     168, 

171,  172 

READ,  "  Exploration  of  a  Rock  Shel- 
ter in  Boston,  Summit  county, 

Ohio,"  73 
"  Rel.  primera  del  Licenciado  de  On- 

degardo,"  440 
REMSAL  (A.  de),  "  Hist,  de  la  Prov. 

de  S.  Vincente  de  Chyapa."  266 
REMY  and  BRENCHLEY,    "  A  Journey 

to  Great  Salt  Lake  City,"  137,  249 
"  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,"  524 
"  Report,  Peabody  Mus.,"  477,  493, 

501,  512 
RETZIUS,  "  Archives  des  Sciences  Nat- 

urelles,"  514 

"  Ethnol.  Schriften,"  488 

REUSS  and  STUBEL,  "  The  Necropolis 

of  Ancon  in  Peru,"  431 
"  Rev.  d'Anth.,"  496 
"  Revista  Mexicana,"  352 
"  Revue  des  Questions  Scientifiques," 

357 
REYNOLDS,     "   Aboriginal  Soapstone 


Quarries  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia," 161 

RIVERO,  "  Hist,  de  Jalapa,  Mexico," 
127 

ROBERTSON,  "  Congres  des  American- 
isles,"  196 

"  Les  Mound  Builders,"  516 

Ruiz   (Mariano),    the  estufas  of    the 

pueblos,  203 

SAHAGUN,  "  Hist.  Gen.  de  las  Cosas 

de  Nueva  Espafia,"  271,  277,  278, 

293,   302,   308,   312,  315,  355,  358, 

507 

SALISBURY,  "  Maya  Arch.,"  344 
"The    Mayas,    the    Sources   of 

their  History,"  344 

"  Proc.  Am.  Antiq.  Soc.,"  265 

SAN  PAOLO  (Dr.  Rath  de),  "  Letter 

Addressed   to   the  Anglo-Brazilian 

Times"  53 
SARTIGES  (Comte  de),  Rev.  des  Deux 

Mondes,  441 

SARTORIUS,   "Soc.  Mex.  Geog.  Bole- 
tin."  354 
SCHERZER,     "Ein     Besuch    bei    den 

Ruinen   von    Quiriqua    im    Staate 

Guatemala,"  375 
SCHMIDT,    "  Zur  Urgeschichte   Nord 

Amerika,"  479 
SCHMIDT   (Ulrich),  account  of    Men- 

doza's  expedition,  8 
SCHOBEL,     "  Antiquites    Ame'ricaines 

du  Muse'e  Ethnographique  de  Saint 

Petersbourg,"  444 

"  Un  chap,  de  1'Arch.  Am.  Con- 
gres de  Luxembourg,"  371 

SCHOOLCRAFT,  "  Archives  of  Aborigi- 
nal Knowledge,"  36,  70,  130,  164, 
165,  180,  241 

"  Ancient  Garden-Beds  in  Grand 

River  valley  (Michigan),"  181 

"Ethnological  Researches  Re- 
specting the  Red  Men  of  America," 
62 

SCHUMACHER  (Paul),  "  Researches  on 
the  Kjokkenmdddings  of  the  Coast 
of  Oregon  and  in  the  Santa  Barbara 
Islands  and  Adjacent  Mainland,"  51 

"  Rep.,  Peabody  Museum,"  137, 

171,  480 

SCHWEDEN,  "  Urgeschichte,"  61 

SCOVILLE  (Dr.  S.).  Cincinnati  Quar- 
terly Journal.  172 

SHORT,  "  North  Americans  of  Antiq- 
uity," 34,  35,  36,  87,  92,  104.  106, 
»77.  197.  306.  3»7.  335.  344.  347, 
484.  493 


562 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


SICULUS  (Diodorus),  "  Biblical  His- 
tory," 60 

SILLIMAN'S  Am.  Journ.  of  Sci.,  92 
SIMPSON  (James),  "Journal  of  a  Mili- 
tary Reconnaissance  from  Santa  Fe 
to  the  Navajo  Country,"  78,  204 
"  Rep.  to  Sec.  of  War,"  229,  234 
SITGREAVES,  "  Report  of  an  Expedi- 
tion down   the  Zuni    and  Colorado 
Rivers,"  226 

"  Soc.  Mex.  Geog.  Bol.,"  361 
SOLDI,  "  Les  camees  et  les  pierres 
gravees  1'art  au  moyen  age,  1'art 
Khmer,  les  arts  du  Perou  et  du 
Mexique,  1'art  Egyptien,  les  arts  in- 
dustriels,  des  muse'es  du  Trocadero, 

375 

SosA  (Caspar  Castanode),  "  Mem.  del 
Descubrimiento  del  Reino  de 
Leon,"  142 

SOURY  (J.),  "  Int.  a  1'  Hist,  des  Pro- 
tistes  de  Hseckel,"  517 

SOUTHALL,  "  Recent  Origin  of  Man," 
34,  35,  89,  192 

SQUIER,  "  Peru,  Incidents  of  Travel 
and  Exploration  in  the  Land  of  the 
Incas,"  387,  388,  393,  396,  399,  400, 
402,  407,  408,  411,  416,  418,  422, 
425,435,  501,  502,503,  509,  523, 
527 

quoted  by  Nott  and  Gliddon,  5 

"Smithsonian      Contrib.       to 

Knowledge,"  131 
"  Nicaragua,"  513 

SQUIER  and  DAVIS,  "  Ancient  Monu- 
ments of  the  Mississippi  Valley," 
81,  too,  104,  107,  112,  137,  165, 
166,  185,  190,  489 

STEPHENS,  "  Incidents  of  Travel  in 
Yucatan,"  82,  159,  265,  318,  319, 
324,  330,  332,  338,  340,  341,  343, 
344,  347,  349 

STEPHENS  and  CATHERWOOD,  "  Inci- 
dents of  Travel  in  Central  Amer- 
ica," 318,  375 

"Views  of  Ancient  Monuments 

in  Central  America,   Chiapas,    and 
Yucatan,"  330 

STRABO,  "  Geography,"  60,  514 

STRACHEY,  "  Historic  of  Travaile  into 
Virginia  Britannia,"  193 

STRONCK,  "  Repertoire  Chronologique 
de  1'  Hist,  des  Mound  Builders," 
Cong,  des  Americ..  197 

SUMNER  (Prof.  W.  G.),  North  Aiin-ri- 
can  Review,  521 

SWALLOW  (Prof.),  "  Report,  Peabody 
Mus.,"  104,  138,  482 


SWINEFORD,  "  Review  of  the  Mineral 
Resources  of  Lake  Superior,"  1876 
178 

ST.  JEROME,  "  Hier.  Opera,"  60 

TENOCHTITLAN     (City    of     Mexico), 

foundation  of,  II 
TERNAUX  COMPANS,    "Notice  Hist. 

sur  la  Guyane  Francaise,"  TO,  138 
TEZOZOMOC       (F.       de      Alvaredo), 

"  Chron.  Mexicana,"  285,  287,  291, 

308,  309 

"  Hist.  Mex.,"  358 

THEVENOT,     "  Relation     de     Divers 

Voyages  Curieux,"  254 
THURMAN  "  Crania  Britannica,"  514 
TOPINARD,  "  Bull.  Soc.  Anth.,"  490 

in  Rev.  cT Anth.,  3 

TORQUEMADA,  "  Mon.  Indiana,"  264, 

277,  279,  282,  285,  288,  290,  291, 

297,  300,  302,  309,  310,  312,  313, 

358,  360,   361,  364,  380 
"  Tres    relacions      de    Antiguedades 

Peruanas    publicalas    el   Ministerio 

de  Fomento,"  Madrid,  1879,  388 
Troisieme   Cong,    des  Americanistes, 

507 
TYLOR,  "  Anahuac,"  350,  352,  358 

UHLMAN  (Max),  "  Handbuch  der  ges- 
amten  /Egyptischen  Alterthum- 
skunde,"  321 

URICOCHCEA,  "  Mem.  sobre  las  An- 
tiguedades Neo-Granadinas,"  459 

VACA  (Cabeja  de),  "  Quarta  Rela- 
cion,"  200 

VALENTINE,  ' '  The  Katunes  of  Maya 
History,"  261 

"  Velacao  verdadeira  dos  trabal- 
hos  que  ho  gobernador  don  Fer- 
nando de  Soto  et  certos  fidalgos 
Portugesos  passaraono  descobri- 
miento  da  provincia  da  Florida,"  80 

VENEGAS,  "  Noticia  de  la  California  y 
de  su  Conquista,"  78 

VETANCURT,  "  Teatro  Mexicano," 
284,  297,  314 

"  Cronica,"  239 


VEYTIA,  "  Hist.  ant.  de  Mejico,"  261, 

277,  282,  283,  285,  288,  302,  308, 

364,  380 

Viollet  le  Due,  365 
VIMONT  (Earth,  de),  "  Relation,"  62 
VOGT  (C.),  "  Squelette  humain  associe 

aux  glyptodontes,"  477 
VON  DUBEN  (Baron),  "Cong,  prch.de 

Copenhague,"  494 


INDEX. 


563 


VOY,  "  Relics  of  the  Stone  Age  in  Cal- 
ifornia," 39 

WAITZ  (Dr.  T.),  "  Anthropologie  der 

Naturvolker,"  466 
WALDECK,  "Voy.  arch,  et  pittoresque 

dans  la  province  du  Yucatan,"  318, 

319,  320,  324,  335,  338. 
WARDEN,   "  Recherches  sur   les  Ant. 

de  1'Am.  du  Nord.  Ant.  Mex.,"  360 
WEST  (E.  P.),  Western  Review,  118 
WHIPPLE,  "  Report  and  Explorations 

near  the  35th  Parallel,"  226 
WHIPPLE,    EWBANK,   and    TURNER, 

"  Report  upon  the  Indian  Tribes," 

224 
WHITE,  "On  Artificial  Shell-Heaps  of 

Fresh- Water  Mollusks,"  56 
WHITNEY,  "Auriferous Gravels,"  533, 

534,  535- 
WHITTLESEY  (Col.),  "Age  of  Skulls 

found  near  Louisville,  Kentucky,"74 
"  Ancient  Mining  on  the  Shores 

of  Lake  Superior,"  178 

"  The     Great    Mound    on    the 

Etowah  River,"  106 

"  Rep.  Am.  Ass.,"  250 

"  On  the  Weapons  and  Character 

of  the  Mound  Builders,"  91 

WIENER,  (Chas.),  "  Estudos  sobre  los 
sambaquis  do  sul  do  Brazil,"  53 

"Perou  et  Bolivie,"  388,  390. 

406.431,  441,443 

WILKES,  "  U.  S.  Exploring  Expedi- 
tion," 393 

WILSON,  "  Prehistoric  Man,"  34,  490, 

503,  504,  5" 

WYMAN  (Jeffries),  "Fresh-Water  Shell- 
Heaps  of  the  St.  John's  River,"  57 

"  Human  Remains  in  the  Shell- 
Heaps  of  the  St.  John's  River  (East 
Florida)  cannibalism,"  58. 

"  Rep.,  Am.  Assoc.."  487 

"  Report,  Peabody  Museum, "49, 

61.  64,  67,  487.  491,  493,  509 

XERES  (F.),  "  Rel.  de  la  Conq.  du 
Perou,"  391 

YATES  (Dr.),  "Smithsonian  Report," 
51 

ZAMORA,  "Hist,  de  la  Prov.  del 
Nuevo  Reino  de  Granada,"  465 

ZEBALLOS  (Dr.)  Rev.  d' Anthropologie, 
84 

"  Un     Tumulus     prehistonque 

de  Buenos  Ayres,"  54 


ZURATE,  "  Hist,  del  Descubrimiento 
y  Conquista  del  Peru,"  422 

ZURITA  (A.  de),  "Rapport  sur  les 
differentes  classes  de  chefs  de  la 
Nouvelle  Espagne,"  315 

Red  River  Mound,  platycnemic  tibiae 

from  493. 

—  Skulls  from  485,  487 
Rhinoceros  tichorinus,  15 
R.  etruscus,   15 
Rio  Carcarana  (Buenos  Ayres),  human 

bones  and  those  of  extinct  animals 

on  the  borders  of,  28 
Rio  das  Trombettas  (or  Orixamena), 

fragments  of  pottery  on,  473 
Rio  de  Chelly,  cliff  houses  along,  218 
Rio  de  la  Plata,  paraderos  in  region 

of,  54 
Rio  Doce  (Brazil),  drawings  on  bank 

of,  469,  470 

Rio  Frias,  paraderos  of  the,  54 
Rio  Juchipila,  hatchet  from  the,  32 
Rio  Lujan,  paraderos  of  the,  54 
Rio  Mancos,  ancient  ruins  along,  208, 

210  , 

Rio  Marco-Diaz,  paraderos  of  the,  54 
Rio  Norzas  (Durango,  Mexico),  mum- 
mies from  cave  in  valley  of,  69 
Rio  Salado,  ruins  of  the,  224 
Rio  Verde,  ruins  of  the,  224 
Roads  of  Peru,  421 
Root  River,  mounds  on,  87 

Sabula  (Iowa),  shell-heaps,  56 

Salt  Cave  (Kentucky),  discoveries  in, 

75 

Sambaquis  in  Brazil,  53,  55  ;  their 
size,  53.  54 

at  Taperinha,  56 

Sandy-Woods  settlement  (Missouri), 
mounds  at,  95 

pottery  at,  136 

San   Pablo  (California),  shell-heap,  50 

Santa  Catalina  (island  of),  ancient  soap- 
stone  quarry  on,  51 

skulls  in  the  shell-heaps  of,  481 

Santa  Catherina,  complexion  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  island  of,  in  the 
l6th  century,  3 

Santa   Lucia  Cosumhualpa,  ruins  at, 

371 

Santa  Rosa,  shell-heap,  48 

Santarem  (province  of  Para),  frag- 
ments of  pottery  near,  473 

Santiago-Tlatelolcoli,  resemblance  of 
skulls  from,  to  those  of  the  Mound 
Builders,  500 


PRE-HIS  TOXIC  A  M ERIC  A . 


Saratoga  •  (New  York),   discoveries  at 

High  Rock  Spring,  74 
Sarcophagi   near    Trenton,    Missouri, 

114 

in  Tennessee  mounds,  115 

Scandinavian  implements,  their  re- 
semblance to  those  from  the  islands 

of  the  Susquehanna,  21 
Scioto  skull  from  Chillicothe,  489 
Sculptures  among  the  Mound  Builders, 

see  under  ' '  Pottery,"  etc. 
Seltzertown,  mound  at,  103 
Serpent  in  American  mythology,  126, 

127 
Shaw's  Flat  (Cal.),  ornaments  of  calc- 

spar  and  granite  mortar  from,  39 
Shell-heaps,  see  "  Kitchen-middens" 
of  Oregon  and  California,  skulls 

in,  480 

list  of  species  found  in  shell- 
heaps  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts, 

535  ;  in  Iowa,  536 
Shelter  Cave,  near  Elyria,  (Lorain  Co., 

Ohio),  71 

Shell  ornaments,  see  "  Ornaments  " 
Short's  Cave  (Kentucky), mummy  in, 76 
Sinnamari    River    (Guiana),    polished 

stone  hatchets  from  the  banks  of,  27 
Silver  Spring  (Florida),  shell-heap,  57 

its  age,  67 

Skulls,  table   of   capacity   of    Mound 

Builders',  490  ;  of  those  of  modern 

races  (Topinard's),  491 
Small-pox,  'its   destructive    effect   on 

the  Indians,  506 
Smilodon,   found   fossil  in  Brazil   by 

Lund,  26 
Sonora  (Cal.),  stone  implements  near, 

39 

Soto,  island  of,  410 

Spaniards,  discoveries  and  conquests 
by,  I,  2,  4,  7,  8 

Sparta  (Tennessee),  human  remains 
enclosed  in  rush  baskets  near,  114 

Squirrel,  veneration  of  the,  in  Van- 
couver's Island,  8 

St.  Acheul,  resemblance  of  its  paleo- 
lithic implements  to  those  of  the 
Delaware  valley,  20 

St.  Andrews  (Cal.),  stone  mortars 
from,  39 

St.  Louis  (Missouri),  mounds  near,  86 

Stimpson's  mound  skull,  comparison 
with  the  Neanderthal  skull,  483 

Strombus  gigas,  172 

Suguassu  River  (Brazil),  sambaquis 
with  human  relics  on  banks  of,  53 

Susquehanna  River  cave,  72 


Swanton  (Vermont),  copper  pipe-stems 
from,  165 

copper  tubes  in  mounds  at,  166 

stone  ornaments  from,  174 

Swastika,  the  sacred  sign  of  the  Ar- 
yans,   on   the    Pemberton  hammer, 

22,  24 

Syphilis,  is  it  native  to  America?  507  ; 
among  the  Mound  Builders,  507 

Tabasco,  battles  near  the  mouth  of  the 

river,  2 
Table  Mountain  (Cal.),  stone  mortars 

from,  39 
Tacuba,  resemblance  of  skulls  from, 

to   those   of   the   Mound   Builders, 

500 

Tahiti,  cannibalism  at,  63 
Taperinha,  discoveries  of  pottery  at, 

472 

sambaquis  at,  56 

Tchungkee,  game  of,  190 
Techichis,  the  dog  of  Mexico,  3 
Tecuhtli,  initiation  of  the,  315 
Tehuantepec,  recent    discovery   of  a 

sepulchre  at,  369 

pyramids  near,  355 

Tehuelche  (Patagonia),  10 

skulls  from  Patagonia  cemeteries 

presenting  marked  deformation,  511 
Tennessee,  caves  as  burial-places,  69 

mounds  in,  91 

mounds  at  Greenwood,  94 

mounds    in    the    valley    of   the 

Cumberland,  106 

adobe  altar  in,  107 

human  remains  in  rush  baskets 

near  Sparta.  114;  nearCairo,  114 

excavations  near  Nashville,  115 

sepulchral    mounds   near   Nash- 
ville, 115 

—  vase  in  child's  grave,  145 

vase   with   handles   from    sepul- 
chral mound,  147 
pottery   in    sepulchral    mounds, 

151 
pipe  from  sepulchral  mound,  152 

—  "  bear  "-shaped  vase  from,  154 
stone  images  in  the  mounds,  of 

167 
copper  ornaments  from  mounds 

of,  172 

shell  ornament  from,  173 

copper  cross  in  grave  at  Zolli- 

coffer  Hill,  176,  177 
seven-foot   skeleton    from    stone 

grave,  496 
cross  from  mound  in,  176 


INDEX. 


Tenochtitlan,  founding  <>f,  285 

Tepanecs  (the),  n 

Tierra  del  Fuego,  shell-heaps,  47 

cannibalism  amongst  the  tribes 

of,  62,  63 

Teul,  hatchet  from  near,  22 

skull  from,  499 

Tezcuans  (the),  281 

Tezcuco,  288,  360 

Tiaguanaco,  ruins  of,  400 

Tiger,  veneration  of  the,  in  Honduras, 
7 

Tijuco  (Brazil),  inscription  on  rocks 
of,  470 

Tin,  amongst  the  Mexicans,  381 

Titicaca,  island  in  Lake  Titicaca,  the 
sacred  island  of  the  Peruvians,  406  ; 
the  birthplace  of  Manco-Capac  and 
CEllo,  407  ;  ruins  on,  407  ;  build- 
ings erected  by  Tupac-Tupanqui, 
the  eleventh  Inca,  408 

Titicaca  Lake,  chulpas  near,  426  ; 
near  Tiuhuani,  426 

Tiuhuani  (Peru),  chulpas  near,  426 

Tolan  or  Tula,  the  capital  of  the 
Toltecs,  12 

Toltecs,  the,  12,  271  ;  conquered  Ana- 
huac  about  the  sixth  century  of  our 
era,  271  ;  Quetzacoatl,  274 ;  re- 
ligious wars,  274  ;  characteristics  of 
the  Toltecs,  275  ;  their  knowledge 
of  the  useful  arts,  276  ;  their  com- 
merce, 276 

their  jewelry  and  ornaments, 

276 ;  their  weapons  and  armor, 
277  ;  cremation  practised  among  the 
higher  classes,  but  the  dead  of  the 
common  people  were  buried,  277  ; 
human  sacrifices,  277 ;  govern- 
ment, 278  ;  marriage  custom,  278 

traditions  of  ihe  magnificence  of 

their  palaces,  278 ;  conquered  by 
the  Chichimecs,  283 

Toolesborough  (Iowa),  alleged  South 
American  shell  in  mound  at,  113 

Topinard  (Dr.),  Table  showing  ca- 
pacity of  skulls  of  modern  races, 
491 

per/oration  of  the  humerus  as 

a  racial  characteristic,  495 

Trenton  (N.  J.),  palaeolithic  imple- 
ments in  the  drift  near,  20 

Trepanned  skulls  from  Yucay  valley 
(Peru),  509  ;  from  Sable  and  Red 
River  mounds  and  from  mounds  in 
Michigan,  510;  trepanning  only 
practised  on  aduk  males,  510;  tre- 
panned skulls  in  Europe,  510 


Troano  manuscript,  379 

Tula,  ruins  of,  355 

Tunga  (Peru),  ruins  near,  461 

Tupi,  see  "  Guarani  " 

Tupis,   the,  inhabit  Brazil,  9 

Turtle    mound,   a    shell-heap     near 

Smyrna,  48 
T  tomes,  the  dog  of  Yucatan,  3 

United  States  of  Colombia,  the  an- 
cient state  of  Cundinamarca  and 
the  home  of  the  Chibchas,  459 

Ursus  Americanus,  4 

Ursus  ferox  (grizzly  bear),  4 

Uruguay,  inscriptions  of,  not  attributa- 
ble to  the  Guaranis,  471 

weapons  and  implements,  475 

Utah,  mounds  in,  83 

sepulchral  mounds  in,  116 

pottery   in    sepulchral    mounds, 

151 
ancient  agricultural  implements, 

i?i 
discovery  of  corn  in  a  mound  of, 

183 
Uxmal,  ruins  of,  333,  334 

Vancouver  Island,  veneration  of  the 
squirrel  in,  8 

shell-heaps,  52 

mounds  in,  83 

Veneration  of  animals,  7 
Vermont,  ancient  pottery  in,  136 

large  vases  from,  155 

copper  pipe  stems  from  Swanton, 

165 

stone  ornament  from  Swanton, 

174 
Vera  Cruz,  deformed  statuettes  from, 

512 

Vilcabamba,  megaliths  of,  424 
Virginia,  caves  as  burial-places,  69 
sepulchral  mound  at  Grave  Creek, 

116 
pipe  from,  165 

shell    ornaments    from     Grave 

Creek  mounds,  172 

shell  pin  from  Ely  mound,  174 

Votan,  legend  concerning,  264 

Washington  Territory,  mounds  near 
Olympia,  106 

Weapons  of  the  aborigines,  16 ;  (see 
"  Weapons  of  the  Mound  Builders  ") 

Weapons  of  the  Mound  Builders,  169  ; 
serpentine  axes  from  Ohio,  169, 
170 ;  serpentine  implement  from 
Tennessee,  170;  the  Mahquahwitl, 


566 


PRE-HISTORIC  AMERICA. 


170;    flint    instrument    from    New 

Jersey,  171 
Weapons  of  Mound  Builders,  copper 

hatchet  at  Swan  ton,  175  ;  knife  and 

lance  point  in  Wisconsin,  175,  176; 

sharp  blade  at  Joliet  (Illinois),  175  ; 

knife  at  Fort  Wayne  (Indiana),  175; 

copper  axes  in  Iowa,  177 
Western  mound,  skull  from,  485 
Wisconsin,  mounds  in,  82 
ruins  of  Aztalan,  on  Rock  River, 

92 
methods    of    burial   among   the 

Mound  Builders,  114 
mounds  on  the  Kickapoo  River, 

1 08 

chief   centre   of  mounds    repre- 
senting animals,  123 
— animal-shaped  mounds  at  Pewau- 

kee,  123 


Wisconsin,  animal-shaped  mounds  in, 

126 

cross-shaped  mounds  in,  129 

copper  weapons  from,  175,  176 

Wyoming,  stone  implements  at  Cow's 

Creek,  40 

Xochicalco,  352 

Xulos,  the  dog  of  Nicaragua,  3 

Yellowstone  River,  mound  city  on,  186 
Yucatan,  mounds  in,  82 

the  cross  in  the  native  temples  of, 

176  (see  also  "  Central  America"). 

Zamna,  the  god,  348 

Zapotecs   the,    362 ;    language,    363  ; 

religious   rites,    363 ;    government, 

363  :  Mitla,  364. 
Zayi,  ruins  at,  340 


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